Leadership

My goal for this blog is to bring you encouraging news, moving speeches, and just plain great thoughts. For my very first posting I searched and searched for inspiring words and was thrilled to find this beautiful speech given by First Lady Michelle Obama on June 22, 2011 in South Africa to a group of young African American women. Below is just an excerpt of the speech that I thought was a particularly powerful passage about leadership.

“…I want to pause for a moment on that word -– leadership -- because I know that so often, when we think about what that word means, what it means to be a leader, we think of presidents and prime ministers. We think of people who pass laws or command armies, run big businesses, people with fancy titles, big salaries.

And most young people don’t fit that image. And I know that often when you try to make your voices heard, sometimes people don’t always listen. I know there are those who discount your opinions, who tell you you’re not ready, who say that you should sit back and wait your turn.

But I am here today because when it comes to the challenges we face, we simply don’t have time to sit back and wait. 

I’m here because I believe that each of you is ready, right here and right now, to start meeting these challenges.

And I am here because I know that true leadership -– leadership that lifts families, leadership that sustains communities and transforms nations –- that kind of leadership rarely starts in palaces or parliaments.

That kind of leadership is not limited only to those of a certain age or status. And that kind of leadership is not just about dramatic events that change the course of history in an instant. 

Instead, true leadership often happens with the smallest acts, in the most unexpected places, by the most unlikely individuals…”

When I read this speech I felt a little fire light in my belly. I was reminded that true leadership can be found in any of us, at any time, no matter how large or small our actions are. We all have the ability to make our families, communities, cities, and countries a better place.     

Click here for the full speech and a video of the First Lady performing it.

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