Leader or a follower? The most notable visionaries aren't typically the ones who fit in; they're often the ones that speak out or act differently, seemingly marching to the beat of their own drum. Leaders view problems or issues as potential opportunities. They know that they're here to fulfill their dreams and make a profound difference in the world. My own research has led me to uncover 7 main traits that inspiring leaders demonstrate. Take a closer look at each one and what you can do to incorporate these qualities into your everyday life.

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It means with equanimity within you and equity between you and them,

communicate what deeply means something to you, the inspired vision you have,

that creates a chain reaction and shows them they're capable of living theirs.

For decades I've had the opportunity to do presentations on this topic.

And the most common question I get about leadership, is it nature or nurture?

Is it something you're born with or is this something you can develop?

And my statement has been, and still is,

that some people discover what they're committed to and what's really valuable

to them and wake up their natural born leader early

and build momentum and confidence doing so, and others are later in life,

and some never get it, some never awaken it. Not because they can't,

but because they just haven't. So,

one thing I'm certain about is that each of us have the capacity to waken

leadership capacities, each of us,

but it is in an area that is unique to each of us.

Now, you know, if you've listened to any of my presentations,

that I rarely do a presentation without discussing values,

and this is no different,

because values and one's individual set of values or priorities in life,

determine their perceptions, decisions,

and actions and where they're going to excel, or where they're going to de-cel.

So any time you set a goal

or an intention

to fulfill what is deeply meaningful,

truly most important in your life, what's highest on your values,

the thing that is most important to you,

you spontaneously are inspired to act on that

and you spontaneously wake up your natural born leader.

But when you compare yourself to other people and minimize yourself to others,

and think they have more intelligence than you, more success than you,

more wealth than you, more stable relationships than you,

more influence than you, more physical vitality or looks than you,

or more spiritual awareness than you,

you'll minimize yourself as you aggrandize them. And you'll,

instead of living by your own highest values,

you'll inject some of their values into your life and cloud the clarity of

what you feel called inwardly to do.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

in his essay on self-reliance,

which I can encourage you to read if you get a chance, it's online,

discusses that majority of people conform and

subordinate to the herd, instead of be heard.

And as Ernest Becker says,

they become part of the collective authority instead of the

selective individual authority.

And they become part of the hero of the collective by fitting in,

instead of standing out. Now,

I've been able to speak in various settings,

from prisons to governments,

from very wealthy leadership, influential people,

to people that are just starting out in their journey.

And one thing I'm certain about is that every human being wants to make a

difference,

but you can't make a difference fitting in or as much of a difference,

you can, but you can't make as much of a difference as you can standing out.

It was in Atlas Shrugged and the Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

talking about unborrowed visionaries,

individuals who do not borrow their vision from others,

but go inside, intrinsically,

and find out what's unique to them that they want to contribute to the world.

An unborrowed visionary is the one that becomes a leader.

So each of us have a set of priorities set of values that are unique to us.

My highest value is teaching. Lower values are cooking and driving.

If I fill my day with high priority actions that are deeply meaningful to

me, teaching and research,

I build momentum towards my leadership capacities.

That's why I'm a leader in my field.

But if I was to do something low in my values,

that was unfulfilling and live by duty, not design,

live by imperatives of others instead of indicatives of my own heart,

I will shrink and shroud and cloud the clarity of my highest

values, which is my mission.

So to the degree that you live congruently with your highest values,

is the degree that you wake up your natural born leader.

And that set of values can be evolved as you go through time and it will be,

and therefore your leadership capacities will evolve as you go.

Each individual may lead different things along the way.

But it's the degree of congruence between what you value most

and living congruently with that, that's what wakes it up.

I'm certain about that.

I've watched people that are really amazing at what they do,

whether it be sports or whether it be business,

or whether it be wealth building or whether it be philosophical or spiritual,

or whether it raising a family, whatever is truly most meaningful,

most inspiring and most important in their life that they're living in alignment

with that and congruent with that,

they wake up their leadership and they lead in the area that they value most.

You lead in the area that you value most,

whatever's highest on your value is where you're going to lead.

Mines in teaching. Cause that's what I love doing, researching and teaching.

I learn and I teach. Now,

if you compare yourself to somebody else,

now I had happened to do a podcast of the day with a gentleman that has a high

value on business and finance,

and so he filters his reality and the world through that,

and he's not right or wrong for doing so, we all do it.

I filter the world through learning and education.

Somebody else may do it through business and finance.

Somebody else may do it through their family.

Whatever's highest on an individual's values, they're going to project onto you,

because they're going to,

that's what they perceive as the most important and everybody shows their love

according to what they think is most important.

So you're gonna be surrounded with people with all different types of value

systems.

Each of them are going to try to get you to do what they think is important

because that's what they think is loving.

And they're going to judge you accordingly.

And if you're not doing what they think is important,

they're going to try to fix you or try to alter you or try to change you to get

you to do what they think is important.

And that's not because they don't care it's because they care in their values.

They just,

they haven't learned the art of communicating their

And they haven't respected your values maybe,

or haven't learned what they are yet.

So knowing what your own values are, which courage you'd go to my website,

dr.demartini.com and go to the value determination

that and do it today and a week from now and a month from now and every quarter,

and keep current with what is truly valuable to and answer with integrity.

Don't make up stuff.

Don't write down the answers when you ask these 13 questions I'm going to ask

you, what you think it 'should be' or 'ought to' be or 'supposed to' be,

according to the herd. Write down what your life demonstrates.

Your hierarchy of values is revealed by your actions, not your words.

And you don't fit what the society is. You may try to, but if you do,

envy is ignorance and imitation is suicide.

The moment you try to be somebody other than yourself,

you'll be second class compared to them.

That's like a cat expecting to swim like a fish or a fish expecting to climb a

tree like a cat.

You'll be first at your values.

And if you live in alignment with those and find out what those are and live by

priority,

every time you fill your day with high priority actions that inspire you,

your day doesn't fill up with low party distractions that don't.

And it's the low priority distractions that don't,

which are the infiltration of everybody

else's values and expectations on you that you haven't said, 'Thank you.

But no thank you' to that distract you and scatter you, which is entropic,

which weighs you down and burdens you and makes you doubt yourself and

uncertainty. Because you go into your amygdala instead of your executive center.

Whenever you're living by your highest value,

your blood glucose and oxygen goes into your executive center and wakes up the

executive. The one with inspired vision, the one with executing plans,

the one that has the plans and the one that executes self-discipline.

And the individual that does that is the master of destiny. They become a leader

and you have that inside you. Every human being has that inside you,

but the second you compare yourself to somebody else and think their form of

success is more important than what's important to you,

you'll try to live in their form of success.

And the moment you try to live in their form of success,

you'll shrink your leader. You'll offload decisions to them.

We're not here to envy them. We're not here to imitate them.

We're here to be ourselves.

I'd rather have the whole world against me than my own soul.

And you wake up the soul,

the state of unconditional love for yourself and the world around you to the

degree that you live by your highest value and live by priority.

Think about your day when you've lived by the very highest priority,

you're more resilient, more adaptable, you expand your space and time horizons,

you see things more clearly and far, you're able to adapt, you have resilience,

you automatically walk your talk, you have more confidence,

you're more certain, you achieve,

and you actually look forward to tackling challenges and you come

home no matter what happens, you're adaptable. You can handle it,

because you've got the most important things done.

But the second you do low priority things and put fires out all day and don't

get around to doing what's most important. You're a bear.

You're difficult to deal with. You're down in your amygdala. You're unfulfilled.

You look for immediate gratification to compensate for it.

You tend to go into pride. You tend to project your values onto others,

expect them to live in your values.

You end up being angry and aggressive and blame and betrayal,

and you go into your amygdala and then you beat yourself up and you live with

uncertainty,

and then you brain offload your decisions to other people because you feel,

'I don't have what it takes'.

Everybody has a leader inside them.

They just have to be courageous enough to be themselves. You know,

it's easy to walk on coals. It's easy to go jump a bungee jump,

compared to being yourself.

That's where real true courage is.

Do you have the courage to be yourself when the world's wanting you to fit in?

When everybody's trying to project onto you how to be?

You go to school and they teach you how to memorize things.

According to the dogma and the authorities of the times,

which may be outdated and may need to be adjusted.

And they don't teach you how to think for yourself. They want you in line.

It was meant for drones, not leaders. In order to be the leader,

you have to stand out. You have to be willing to go and beat a different drum.

Typically, a leader that stands out will get ridiculed,

violently opposed until they become self-evident.

Majority of people follow a culture. The leaders build a culture.

You want to create a culture,

inspire people by exemplifying an authentic life.

Your identity revolves around what you value most.

Whenever you're living by your highest value, you live by an identity that you.

It's called the authentic self. You're integral. You're honest with yourself,

once you know that and you live by it.

I made sure that I delegated everything other than what was most important in my

life. Anything that is not inspiring I delegate.

You can't live an inspired life unless you delegate.

And that requires that you go out and serve people, doing something you love,

that returns, remunerates you financially to pay for the delegation.

And then make sure you hire people that love doing it.

That produce more than they cost,

so you extract surplus labor value and you get financially rewarded.

There were five S's of leadership that I observed.

So you may want to write these down,

things that I found common to leaders in addition to what I've already said.

Number one is they know their mission. I was speaking in Melbourne Australia,

a number of years ago, maybe 8 years ago, 9 years ago.

And I was speaking on leadership. And I came down off the stage.

It was about 1400 people or so in the room, 1200, something like that.

And I came down the stage and I put my microphone out. I said,

'You're here for a leadership conference. What do you intend to lead?'

And out of 10 people, eight of them didn't know. It was really interesting,

I put them on the spot and they go, 'Whoa,

I don't know.' And two stood out and they knew what they were going to lead.

Know your mission. Those with a mission, have a message.

And those with a mission and a message have a vision, and they can see it.

And the way you know it's clear in your mind,

is you can articulate it fluently to somebody else,

and they can see it at the same time. At that very conference,

I shared the vision that I had when I was 17 when I met Paul Bragg,

the teacher that inspired me to do what I'm doing today.

And I shared the vision and it kind of brought me to tears when I shared it.

And there was a famous painter in the audience. And afterwards,

he came up to me and asked if he could paint my vision. And he did,

and it was astonishing. And it sits in my office today,

a giant painting of the vision that I saw standing on a balcony in front of a

million people speaking with an iconic building of every major city in the

background. Those with a vision,

flourish, those without it perish, as an old biblical statement.

But those that know their highest value, which is their mission.

And they're clear about it.

And they prioritize their life and they focus on daily actions that are the

highest priority things that produce the greatest results,

serving the greatest number of people in the most effective and efficient way,

and they're clear about what that mission is,

and they walk that talk and they exemplify that life,

they automatically synchronize events in their life,

people, places, things, ideas,

and events synchronize into their life to achieve. It's magical,

not magical, but it's magical. Because other people go,

'How in the heck does that happen?'

So the first S in a 5 S's of leadership is know

what your service is. You're not going to have fulfillment getting rewards,

money without meaning and service leads to debauchery,

but money with meaning leads to philanthropy, and

Making a difference in other people's lives. We all know it.

If you look carefully in your life,

the most fulfilling moments in life is when you made some sort of contribution.

So look carefully at what it is you want to dedicate your life to.

The mission that means something to you. Mine's teaching.

You look inside,

I want you to go in and discover what that is because your highest value is

where it is.

Whatever you can't wait to get up in the morning and do whatever you

spontaneously want to get up and do,

whatever you just spontaneously do every day that inspires you, that's it.

But if you compare it to somebody else and you'll think it's not good enough

compared to somebody else, you'll think it 'should be' something else.

Anytime you hear yourself saying, I 'should', I 'ought to', I 'supposed to',

I 'got to', I 'have to', I 'must', I 'need to', it ain't it.

That's somebody else's. And anytime you going, 'This is what I love doing.

This is what I feel called to do. This is my inspiration.

This is what I can't wait to get up in the morning and do,

this is what I do spontaneously.

This is what nobody has to extrinsically motivate me to do.' That's it?

Know that.

Look honestly, I have people go, 'I don't know what it is.' Yeah, they do.

You're comparing yourself to others and frightened that it doesn't live up to

expectations of others. It's not about what other people expect.

It's about what's in your heart.

[Inaudible].

The second is, is gain specialized knowledge in it.

Because you spontaneously want to learn.

One of the value determinants in the value determination on my website is what

do you spontaneously want to learn?

We spontaneously want to learn about what's valuable to us.

If you look carefully what's most important to you, you

Well, my advice; learn about it,

through mentorship or through action or doing it or reading or standing on the

shoulders of other giants,

gain specialized knowledge in whatever it is that you do. Einstein,

it was on physics and the theories that he created,

he wanted to find a unified field theory.

I have a new movie that I'm getting involved in that's with

Stephen Hawking,

and they were interviewing Stephen Hawking that wanted to know what his

mission, what inspired him on his mission,

and he said it very amazingly with his special mechanical device before he

passed away, he says, 'I just want to find the unified field theory'.

That's been his life's mission. You could see it when he said it.

That's why he became great at what he did. He stayed focused.

If you stay focused on what's really highest on your value,

you will build momentum, incremental momentum, baby steps being big dreams.

Piggy banks bring biggie banks. If you do, you would unstoppable.

You build momentum. If you have gained specialized knowledge,

because you love learning about it, you become a master of what it is you do,

and you gain respect in it.

And people realize that nobody can keep up with your pace because you're so

inspired by doing it, you're absorbing it.

Whenever you're reading and learning about what's most important to you,

you absorb the information, get photographic,

autographic mind on it because it's so deeply meaningful.

You retain information that's meaningful.

And then you excel in that because of that.

So get clear about your mission and gain specialized knowledge. Number three,

is learn how to speak out. Those with a mission have a message,

share your message.

The ability to leverage leadership through message is powerful.

If you make a difference by speaking,

if you can stand up and overcome the fear speaking,

most people are frightened about speaking,

because they're worried about what people think about them.

They compare themselves to other people that they think is more intelligent than

them and they shrink,

and they're focused on what other people think about them instead of their

message. But if all of a sudden,

they give themselves permission to share, they can leverage themselves.

If you can overcome the fear of speaking,

you'd move to the top 20% of the world.

If you can overcome the fear of speaking and speak and say something clearly,

about a mission and say something about a mission,

that makes a difference in somebody's life,

you're in the top 20% of the 20% of the world.

If you can do that and you can get them to go and fulfill their mission,

you're in the top 20% of the 20% of the 20% of the world.

If you can get a chain reaction of getting them on their mission and inspiring

exemplifying a mission in them a mission and keep going to chain reaction

through a series of people in society, a ripple effect,

you can move to the top 20% of the 20% of the 20% of the 20% of the world.

Speak out.

Don't hold in what's inside you. Cause the outer world wins,

if you don't empower your life from within other people power it from without.

And any area of your life, you don't empower people will overpower you.

And people who speak out and can articulate fluently

meaningful that's deeply inspiring to them, are unstoppable and they're leaders.

In whatever the field that they have specialized knowledge in,

whatever they feel is their mission. And people can tell if you're on a mission,

people can tell if you have some cause bigger than yourself.

They can tell when you're really deeply mean, it's deeply meaningful to you.

The fourth one is learning how to sell, which really means learning how to care,

which really means learning other people's values and learning how to

communicate what your values are in terms of them,

what your mission is in terms of their values. When they do,

they believe you have charisma.

Charisma is the ability to articulate what is deeply meaningful to you in an

inspiring way, in a way that inspires and helps them fulfill their mission,

their mission. If you help other people get what they want to get in life,

you get what you want to get in life.

You automatically lead by caring enough about the people you communicate to,

to communicate your mission, in terms of theirs.

That doesn't mean sacrifice for them altruistically, that won't work.

It doesn't mean narcissistically, autocratically project onto them.

It means with equanimity within you and equity between you and them,

communicate what deeply means something to you, the inspired vision you have,

that creates a chain reaction and shows them they're capable of living theirs.

If you show them they're capable of living their mission,

they'll want to be around you because it's a natural magnetism to be around

people that give them permission to be themselves.

By you being yourself and exemplify, that's the greatest teacher.

Albert Einstein said, that's the greatest teaching, is exemplification.

And having the courage to speak out and communicate what you love doing in

terms of what other people do so they get what they want, liberates you.

And that's what is fulfillment again,

because you're making a difference in their lives.

Every day I get thank you letters coming in from around the world.

That's one of the most inspiring things I get to read in a day.

Sometimes I get tears throughout the day when they come in, of the impact.

Because people,

because I live my mission and because they are now given permission to do it,

they're living theirs and they're going and doing the things that are inspiring

and making a difference and a chain reaction's occurring.

I'm watching it happen. I've been doing it 48 years now.

And it's inspiring to watch. I've seen the next generation,

not just in my generation, but the generation and the next generation.

I've seen amazing, my

age group has got kids who's now have kids and they're doing it, very inspiring.

And the last of the S's is learn how to save and invest.

Make sure that you invest in yourself.

Until you value yourself don't expect anybody else to.

If you value yourself and invest in yourself and have money working for you,

you won't have to work for money as a slave, you'll be its master.

And the moment you value you, so does the world. The moment you invest in you,

so does the world. The moment you have money working for you,

you don't have to work for the money,

you work because you love to and the money's paying your way and it liberates.

And you can then use it for philanthropic objectives.

Instead of rescuing people with socialistic systems,

accountability, responsibility, and productivity,

you can go out and do something that incentivizes people

with their life. And you can take command on that.

You can be the mini government that's governing and helping.

So make sure that you save a portion of whatever you earn and live within your

means and keep expanding yourself financially.

So go at know with what your mission is. Gain specialized knowledge.

Learn how to speak out,

learn how to sell and communicate and caringly in terms of people's values so

they can fulfill their lives, and then save and invest.

Because when you value you so does the world. Also,

when you meet somebody and you admire them or despise them,

find out what it is that you're too humble or too proud to admit that you see in

them inside you, that you don't admit it you have it inside.

You disown it and own it. When you can own all the traits around you,

people can't run you from outside.

A lot of times people are sitting there thinking, 'Well, I admire them,

but I don't have that.' Well,

I found out that every trait that I found in other people I had within me,

it's in my own form in my own values, not always in their form, but in my form.

And once I realized that there's nothing missing in me, at the level of my soul,

nothing's missing, but at the level of my senses,

I think things are missing because I'm judging.

But as long as I put people on pedestals and minimize me or put people in pits

and exaggerate me, I won't be me.

And you're not going to be a leader if you're not being you.

You can't put on a facade and be a leader.

A facade is a response to judgements of other people and letting them run you.

So we're not here to put people on pedestals or pits.

We're here to put them in our hearts.

When we actually love them for who they are and realize that whatever we see in

them is inside us and own it,

we appreciate them as a reflection to awaken the part of us we disowned.

And the more parts we own, the more empowered we are.

And the more empowered we are, the bigger the vision we get.

If we want to make a difference in ourself,

we need a vision bigger than ourself. A cause bigger than ourself,

a cause as big as our family. If you want to make a difference in our family,

we need a cause and a vision as big as our community.

We want to be a leader in the community,

we need to have a cause as big as our city. We want to be a leader in our city,

we need a cause or a vision as big as our state.

If we want to be number one in the state,

we need a vision and cause as big as our nation.

If we want to be number one in the nation, we need a cause as big as our world.

If we want to make a global difference, we need an astronomical cause.

Our soul, our celestial self, our broad-minded,

expanded awareness self, has a celestial vision,

it doesn't constrain itself. It's not limited to the senses.

It sees abstractly conceptually from within. That's the one to follow.

That's the one that is taking Elon Musk to Mars.

That's the one that got Phelps 28 medals.

That's the one that took Arnold Schwarzenegger from nobody,

no one's heard of him, to a leader and a governor.

There's no reason why you can't do something extraordinary with your life.

It doesn't matter what you've been through. What you're going through,

what you've been through and experienced in your life.

What matters is you follow those principles I just

go and do your Value Determination. Determine what's really important to you.

Start prioritizing your life. Do it every day, a little at a day,

start delegating lower priority things. You will gain confidence.

You will get a clear vision. Your executive center

You will say no to things that aren't important.

You'll say yes to things that are priority. You'll

You'll fill your day with challenges that inspire you.

That's what makes you great. That's what makes up unique, creative,

original genius ideas. That's what opens up the doorway from leadership.

You have a leader inside you. It may be raising a great family.

It may running a magnificent business.

It may be sitting there in academic and solve problems.

It may be a spiritual quest and lead spiritually. Or physical fitness.

Or maybe some social political cause.

Or maybe raising a family of world leaders like Rose Kennedy. Whatever it is,

it's honorable. Don't compare yourself to others and think, well,

it's not as big as theirs or something. Own their traits.

Discover where it is already inside you what you see in them.

That way you're not comparing, you're reflecting.

And then realize that you're destined to do something amazing on planet earth,

whatever that is for you. And there's nothing to do to a small or big,

or whatever it may be for you,

but my experience is that whenever you start pursuing what's deeply meaningful

it will expand.

What I envisioned when I was young has expanded.

Because every time you're living congruently it keeps expanding.

So the leaders inside you, it may be dormant.

It may be you're subordinated to the world around you.

But it's time to stand up and be yourself.

The magnificence of who you are is far greater than any fantasies you'll ever

put on yourself. Anyway, that's what I want to share today on leadership.

And so I just want you to give yourself permission to be the leader that you're

destined inside to be. And you determine the destiny,

the hierarchy of your values dictates your destiny and the series of your values

as they change through life determines your life journey.

And there's no reason why you can't be a magnificent leader in whatever it is

that inspires you. To help you in this leadership,

there's a little gift I'd like to give you.

It's called Awakening Your Astronomical Vision.

It's a live presentation I did in Johannesburg at a planetarium to a

YPO group of leaders. It's about expanding your vision,

because the greater the vision, the greater your life,

the greater the impact you'll have on your life.

It's about how to expand the vision.

It's basically the principles that I'm covering today,

right now in this presentation and more. It's a two hour presentation,

not just 30 minutes.,

But I am absolutely certain if you listen to it five or six times and put that

into your thinking and start applying what has been said in there,

it's going to help you play a bigger game, whatever it may be.

I've never seen anybody shrink.

I don't know of anybody that wants to learn less and be less knowledgeable,

less achieving, less wealthy, less fulfilled in relationship,

less social influential, less vital, and physically healthy and less inspired.

We have a natural tendency to go to the boundaries of what we know in the

finitude and go into the infinitude. So this CD,

grab it, get it now. It's worth $50 normally. It's a

Listen to it again and again and again,

the people in that seminar that night were impacted by it.

I know it'll impact you.

And also if you can endure me for a little longer,

How to Accelerate Progress and Achievement, a free

come and join me for that. It's complimentary, free masterclass.

It's about achievement. If you want to take your achievements to the next level,

let me give you the tips.

I've been working and focusing on what I love doing and traveling the world and

speaking,

I've been blessed to speak at 154 countries around the

reached millions, in fact,

billions of people now with all the media and everything we're doing.

I'm absolutely certain that there are principles and methods that if you apply

them, you can achieve more in your life.

And it's not a matter of what it is that's about comparing yourself to others.

It's about what's inside you, comparing your own dreams,

your actions to your own dreams is what matters.

So if you'd like to achieve more of what's inside you,

that you feel called to do in your leadership capacities,

It'll be practical, will be inspiring.

And I know that by putting your hand in the pot and glue some of the glue will

stick.

Thank you for joining me for this presentation today.

If you found value out of the presentation,

please go below and please share your comments.

We certainly appreciate that feedback and be sure to subscribe and hit the

notification icons. That way I can bring more content to you,

an share more to help you maximize your life.

I look forward to our next presentation. Thank you so much for joining.