Leaders are like diamonds: they are born under pressure.
This thought came to my mind while I was trying to get some sleep. While pondering this idea I came to realize that rich and poor share the same struggle: in one form or another they all have problems. Created by the mind, by the circumstance or never really there, problems are something that everyone can proudly claim that they have.
Humankind has gone through all sorts of self-induced problems: wars, genocide, depression, recession, corruption, etc. Throughout history it seems that some lessons continue to repeat as if humanity has learned nothing. They say that tough times are coming in 2025 but who knows? We have witnessed great people overcoming crisis in the harshest times and the proof of time has proven that great characters get formed during grueling adversity.
If someone has gone through a lot of trauma and tries to retell it to someone who has lived in candy cane land they are in for some trouble. It is almost impossible to truly understand someone’s hell if you have only lived in heaven. Leaders of great value have gone though ordeals. Only by reading their memoirs and biographies one can begin to understand the amount of pressure that stood on their shoulders. It is easy to judge that someone is harsh or ruthless when you haven’t walked a mile in their shoes. Humans are quick to judge and slow to learn. Why?
As I thought about this idea of leaders getting born under pressure just like diamonds I realize something that could be of great help to anyone who has gone or is going through hell: the biggest gift you’re getting is a stronger and better version of yourself. Someone who doesn’t take bullshit anymore, someone who is ready to do gown into the pits of abysmal pain in order to process it and not let it pass down to future generations. Someone who is becoming undestructible because they have discovered that the biggest source of power is within. As Winston Churchill said: if you’re going though hell….keep going.
Stopping when it starts to hurt or to become harder and harder is not an option. Inner work for leadership demands sacrifice. That sacrifice comes from you: you will have to sacrifice old parts of yourself and let them go and die in order to get reborn. This will change you. This will make you become different and people around you will expect the older version of yourself because this makes their life easy. But it is not about their life, it’s about yours.Leadership is a solo journey when it comes to inner strenght. Nobody can motivate you and push you as much as you, filled with faith and motivation, can.
Dark times always have a glimmer of light hidden beyond the corners where everybody looks. In that glimmer of a light diamonds shine...
