You've just entered secondary school, your mum decided to get you something special, to mark your milestone in life. They throw you a party! They got you a very popular club downtown, and booked it for the day. Drinks,music,LOADS of good time, the list goes on and on. You are being envied by all your friends. YOU are THE one. Not just SOMEONE, but THE ONE. Something like Matrix's Neo. Nearing the end of the party, your parents brought you outside and showed you a brand new BMW 7 series car! Carefully moderated and altered to achieve optimum results. NOW THATS LIKE WAYYY COOL. Totally AWESOME. WAIT! hang on. You're only 13?! BMW's are sporty and cool, hitting the roads at like 120Km/h, impressing people around you. But you need to be 18 before you can even TOUCH that pedal and groove off in that snazy car!


Leaders are gifted people! No qualms about that! They lean on their gifts to achieve success. Yet, it is during this process that the character inside them dont have a chance to develop. They shoot themselves in the foot by depending on this gift that can run out (I'll explain that in my next post) and not dedicating time to nuture character that can last much longer or rather FOREVER!


M.J Sounds familiar? No, it isnt Mary Jane Watson from Spiderman! Its Michael Jackson! People know him as the King of pop and rock and roll, well thats if you are old enough. However, people my age or younger will know him as the person who went for plastic surgery till his face, well, just look like anything else but a face. He dominated the world's music as young as 6 ( i think ) there was like a big party when people discovered his talent! He roamed around all the world to give performances,flim his music videos, interviews and did EVERYTHING---except nurturing his character. If you've kept with his postings, you would realise he was found out to be accused of child molestation. Why is this so? Well, thats cause he just simply has MATURED. He didnt get to go through proper life stages! He was either on stage singing away or grooving on the next music video! Emotionally, he was very fragile! This is an example of an oversized gift.


Let's focus the scope back onto ourselves,we all have different talents! Some does writing better, others are much more skilled as an orator. But the main purpose is that we COMPLIMENT one another's skill and talents to bloom together. Even if both of you may have the same talent, the one with a greater depth of knowledge need not be the person in the front! He may be the person leading from the back! Leaders need not lead from the front all the time. There are times where you have to step back and be the middle person inspiring them, other time you may be at the back encouraging them!


Unless you make the effort of uniting the people around you. Not just your superiors,but your equals, and those you feel that may be inferior. What is important is that you should extend that warm and genuine approach to your friends,and your juniors,and your seniors. We may not be very comfortable in the council doing the "goodie good stuffs" but, as I have written in my first post, we all must have the burdern of ownership that this council board is OURS TO MAKE, and OURS TO WRECK. You choose the route. Ownership is never a good feeling. You'll always have to make sacrifices for it. Thats why I call it a burdern. I wasnt as "good" as some of you are right now! It takes time to accept your status and change accordingly.



You ask " Wait, so how do I know what's my gift? How can I use it or hone it?"

Here's the answer. What do you do best? Why do you think you're in the council? What are the contributions you feel you can give to this council? If you dont have any contribution you can give to the council board, then I'm here to tell you that you can leave it. There's no point being a passenger. There's no point being a member when you can do nothing. Those who say that you're shy, step up and come out of your comfort zone to interact. No one is going to wait for you to take the first step. If its tough for you what makes you think that it isnt tough for others? But surely you'll make a difference if you overcome it. Reality IS harsh. Size up to it.

--Isaac Liu