Leadership and Character By Michael Angier The village in which I grew up had a town drunk. His name was Tex … probably because he wore a cowboy hat most of the time. Or maybe he wore the hat because his name was Tex. I don't know. Actually he wasn't just the town drunk for our town. You see, we weren't big enough to have our own so we had to share Tex with the next town nearby. In any event, Tex could often be found walking the road pulling an old rope. People would ask him why he pulled that darn rope around with him. He'd smile, push his big cowboy hat back and say, "Did you ever try pushing one?" His comment always got a laugh. I think it was his way of setting someone up. Someone laughed at it once and it became his joke … his trademark. But, of course he was also right. You can't push a rope. Dwight D. Eisenhower used to illustrate the art of leadership in much the same way. He'd place a piece of string on a table and say, "pull it, and it will follow anywhere you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all." Leadership is the ability to make people want to follow you. It means being out in front and doing what you're asking others to do. The world is in dire need of leadership. People are looking to follow almost anyone who knows where he or she is going, believes fervently in a cause, has integrity and truly cares about his or her followers. Leadership is a skill. It's maturity, it's wisdom, and it's discipline. It's something that we all can do more of. How about it? Are you willing to lead instead of follow? © Copyright 1995-2001 Success Networks International. Success Net is a worldwide association committed to helping people become more knowledgeable, productive and effective. Their mission is to inform, inspire and empower people to be their best-personally and professionally. Free subscriptions, memberships, books and SuccessMark™ Cards available at www.SuccessNet.org Print this article Recommend this article An error occurred on the server when processing the URL. Please contact the system administrator. If you are the system administrator please click here to find out more about this error.