Five scores after, you or I will not be there to stride on this earth. But the foundation we are laying through the leadership movement will be there. Dream, of a tomorrow where our vision of making India a nation of leaders is fulfilled and our country becoming a leader of nations! India will be a nation from which other countries will take lessons on leadership and revive their nations on the foundation of democratized leadership. We need to ask ourselves the hard questions, dream really big, and start acting rather than waiting for everything to be fine and then do something. Whole of India should awaken to the call of democratized leadership at the earliest.

Let us incarnate the freedom fighters’ mind in ours. Let the patriotism run in our blood with all its vigour. Let us stand up and say that we are leading our nation. Let us do it for the nation. Let us make it happen now. Let us join our souls and hands for the nation. Let us do it now.

Mohammad Nibras P.K.
Leadcap.

The 8th decision in Sangeeth Varghese’s bestseller ‘Decide to Lead; 8 decisions that can make you a leader’ is “Run to Win”. To quote the author, “leaders focus on winning. Even as they face obstacles in life, all they concentrate on and work toward is victory – nothing more, nothing less. Leaders run not for the sake of running, but to win.” One of my favourite leaders is Walt Disney. Disney cartoon and animated characters have made us laugh and happy for decades. But life of Walt Disney was not as colourful and fun filled as the cartoons.

In business, what will you do if all your team members whom you nurtured and helped to reach excellence ditch you and join your competitor? What will happen when tragedies flow like a mighty river into your life one by one and you don’t have time to think! These and more happened with Walt Disney. Walt Disney was a great leader in the true sense – who always kept high expectations for his animators. He always focused on quality of work. He inspired a nation with his cartoon characters. Even when he was faced with criticism and setbacks in personal and professional life, Walt Disney knew what he was supposed to do. He was running to win.

Walt Disney did what others said was impossible to do. He believed that anything is possible. He was a master salesman; he sold well to do well. He embraced high risk to reap higher returns. He kept on growing because there was no survival without growing. Walt Disney as a leader has gone through all the 8 decisions.

Check out any leader, you will find all the 8 decisions coming into picture in that leader’s life. We need some introspection as to why don’t we have a Gandhi or a Walt Disney in us! I would say, we haven’t still taken the 8 decisions.

Are you running to win?

Mohammad Nibras P.K.
Leadcap.

Why we should all wake up and stand up to realise our hidden leadership potential to build our nation. And why we should do it NOW.

I remember studying history back in my good old school days! I loved history! It always taught me something from great leaders good or bad! I loved reading about the great Mughals, the khilji’s, the lodhi’s, Tuglag’s the kingdoms of Southern India like the Vijayanagara, the Bahaman and so on.

However nothing thrills me more to read about Julies Caesar, Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan! WOW! What awesome leaders they were! They did leave a trail of blood, but that is not what impress me. It is their strategy, approach and attitude that they had when faced with difficulties that impress me!

When Julies Caesar was in today’s England for a war, he was faced with a dilemma. His soldiers were disappointed and were not willing to fight as they felt very insecure by just looking at the Anglo- Saxons. They wanted to go back to Rome, feel safe at home and that looked nice to them. But this is what Julies Caesar did. He Burnt the entire fleet of Roman ships. When he did it, his soldiers knew that the only way back home is by winning the Anglo Saxons. And that is exactly what they did.

Quite often in our life, we feel very lethargic, tired and worn out! The easiest stuff that we could possibly do is to call it quits and hang our boots. That’s Easy! But that is not what we are called to be. We are called to fight on, and to hang on. To take challenges head on and be able to face challenges eye ball to eye ball, square in the face and say: No matter what it is, I can face this a little more, I can endure a little more pain. I will be standing at the end of the battle to see my victory, I will persevere and endure through pain to enjoy and experience the fruit of my labor!

Winning is worth it! Fight till the end!

Blesson Abraham

Its been a commonplace to hear people talking about India still buried deep under the aftereffects of the centuries of foreign rule and oppression. The immediate question snakes up its head is that what is it we really need to be independent? Whats the true sense of independence? Is it political sovereignty, allowing us to govern our country through our ways end to end all along our borders? Is it the freedom to express ourselves, choose our religion, decide our occupation?

     All said and done, what we often completely miss out or drag down to the bottom of our list of independence parameters is Energy sufficiency. The most well known personality who could actually envision this most important factor for India’s development, its freedom from depending on others for meeting out its Energy needs, is Dr. Abdul Kalam. He envisages India’s energy self sufficiency by 2020 for it to be a developed and the strongest nation of world. A recent statement by Mr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister, India on being left with no alternative than to hike the prices of petroleum and products emulates the fact that India is now on the verge of a critical situation where in India stands to jeopardize its economic structure trying to make Oil and Petroleum affordable for its citizens.  There are a numerous other instances where India stands helpless in terms of energy needs.

But wait.. this no where implies that India is in its most deplorable states of Energy requirements. What we need next is to become leaders in energy research and be the forerunners of utilizing Alternative energy sources. Its time we stand up and prove our mettle in terms of energy independence. Its a known fact that dollars and pounds are being poured in west for energy related innovations. We need similar incentives in India to push our researchers, entrepreneurs and public to take steps to lead India to the forefront and make it a Energy Superpower. Its quite evident that the middle east is always engaged in war over its energy resources control.

     Yes! its time to realize, if we can control energy resources, we can control the World! 

Aniket Baheti, IIT Madras