The Power of Vulnerability

 Lollipops and Leaders 

People made leadership a larger-than-life concept that extended beyond them. Today, being a leader means being extraordinary and changing the world. The title of a leader is treated as something that we will one day deserve and that thinking that we can have it right now is seen as arrogance. 

What we do not know is, everyone has already been a leader. How?

Well first there are two questions we need to answer:

1. What is a lollipop moment?

A lollipop moment is one second - one word - one simple act of kindness, that changes someone’s life forever.  

2. Do I have a lollipop moment?

Yes, I do. At some point in my life, I struggled. I struggled so much that I shut everyone out and just stayed in my own little personal bubble for way too long. However, there was one and only one person that I would talk to. This guy had been my friend since KG1. Eventually, life got in the way and we both moved to different countries. Despite that, we stayed in touch. One day, while I was talking to him, he just randomly told me, “you know you can either let yourself stay in that sad bubble forever, or you can try to go along with your life and make it count.” 

Make it count. That is all he had to say to absolutely change my life forever. Although it was a long process. I went song with my life and I tried as hard as I could to make every moment count. This changed my life so much that it is now permanently on my body. 

When I told him that this was because of him, he couldn't recall when he said that. I was surprised, to be honest. How can such a significant moment in my life be something he can’t even remember. I think that’s the part Drew Dudley was talking about, we do not take credit for moments where we truly are leaders.

Not only did this situation bring me out of a bad stage in my life, but it also helped me view things differently. For example, I always assumed if I ever had ANY type of impact on someone, I will 100% know it. But after seeing how this simple act of kindness is forgotten by my friend, I realized we are all victims of societal standards. Standards have been set so high that we only celebrate amazing things that hardly anybody can do while devaluing things that we can do every day.

If you look up “people who did amazing things,” you will find people like Alexander the Great who conquered countries at the age of 18. While obviously, this was historically significant, why are people like Drew Dudley not included? Did he not change a girl's life forever? Is that not something great? 

Marianne Williamson once said, “our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.” This basically means that the idea of having so much power scares us. It makes sense, no one wants to think that one little word they said can greatly impact people. It is an excuse we subconsciously make in order not to expect much from ourselves.  But where is that getting us? Nowhere. 

The only power on Earth that is available to everyone and is not obstructed by structural barriers is a moment of kindness, empathy, forgiveness, etc. We need to do better and we can do better by redefining leadership. Leadership should be about lollipop moments, not money and power. Once we redefine leadership, we can all reach our full leadership potential and influence those around us.