Leaders vs followers

Just had the privilege to read some wise words forwarded to me via email. How refreshing to hear that there are people out there who look forward to doing things with what they have rather than complaining about what they don't. They make the best of what they have and await the unexpected. I don't think they should be considered passive, in fact they are pro-active to me. Pro-active in the sense that they DO things with available means and tools. These are the leaders as far as I am concerned.

We had a new software installed for evaluation in the office and from how everyone reacted, I already managed to pick out the leaders from the followers. The leaders were so eager to learn, so eager to see what else they can get out of the software, and so pleased that they have a new tool to help them with what they're doing. The followers, or rather losers, are the ones who complain about what that software can't do, about how they need to go the roundabout ways to do certain tasks, and how slow it is. And they all failed to see which aspects that software has made their lives easier.

It's similar in what's facing us in life right now, in the face of this global economic crisis.

The leaders will look at the constraints and limitations this crisis has brought about to their normal lives, they will look for opportunities such as how they can utilise the downturn to streamline their operations, make more efficient use of their time and resources, and how else they can use their time to improve, innovate and prepare for the upturn. The followers and losers will spend most of their time whinging about how the downturn has affected their lives, what they're having to live or do without, their sacrifices and blah blah blah.. Are you one of them? Or are you more than that?

During the 1997 financial crisis in Asia, I can remember telling the rest of my staff and peers to watch the rebound. We upgraded, we re-trained, we survived the crisis, we earned respect from our staff and vendors and so on.... And true enough, when the rebound struck us, we were one of the few who were prepared for the work which overwhelmed the industry and caught others unprepared. We retained all the basic infrastructure albeit scaled down somewhat, we retained most of our capable and competent staff and most of all, we retained the mindset which enabled us to handle the rebound.

This is also true about life. I've had my ups and downs. When I'm down, I sob a little like any human would (unless you're in a Hollywood movie), worry a little, get stressed up quite a lot, BUT I also found time to learn from the lessons which caused the "down" and reminisce those moments which I enjoyed during the "ups". I also found time to learn more, improve myself, and adapted my mindset to perpetual ups and downs which I'll meet in my life.

Life's worth living they say! I can't see how that can be disputed.