Are Leaders Born or Made? Answers Sadhguru

Leaders are always made. Whether you made yourself before your birth or after, it does not matter how, but leaders are always made. It is just that a certain person may have a certain charisma and flair about his personality that helps him lead a little more effortlessly. But people who lead only with charisma can lead people to disasters. Charisma can be very intoxicating both for you and others and you can lead them to a disaster. Many leaders who could gather huge numbers of people behind them were disastrous for the world. They led them into battles and disastrous situations, because they led just by charisma, not by sense.

We want people who lead with sense. It is not always necessary that the leader should be charismatic. You will see, those things which are of true importance to human beings are being done not necessarily by charismatic people. They are being done by sensible people who know what to do and what not to do.

Whoever you are, whatever you are right now, it is something that you have made. The only question is either you made yourself consciously or unconsciously. You have manufactured yourself unconsciously so you have come out as a mess – sometimes a successful mess, sometimes an unsuccessful mess. But whichever way you are, if you have manufactured yourself unconsciously, you are successful only in someone else’s eyes. In your own experience of life you will not be successful. Only if you have made yourself consciously, you are successful in your own eyes. It is very important that you are successful in your own perspective and not in comparison to someone else, in a social perspective.

A leader should not only be on top of the group, he must be on top of the world within himself. If he does not do something about himself, what he does with other people is going to be accidental and any moment the whole thing can collapse on his head. Leadership does not mean that you have to sit on top of a pile of people. Leadership means that within yourself, you are in top condition. According to your capabilities, when your capabilities find full expression, things will happen. As far as capabilities are concerned, a human being can be trained for anything. Of course, there are people with a certain natural talent towards things, but even if you have natural talent, that also is made by you, but unconsciously. If you make yourself into a conscious leader, you will function sensibly, which is much better than relying on charisma.

Ranked amongst the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary an a New York Times bestselling author Sadhguru has been conferred the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 2017, the highest annual civilian award, accorded for exceptional and distinguished service.