With the recent increase of oil price hikes, I saw some similarites among the dire economic situation and people like us as leaders. When prices of the oil increases, it brings forth many problems such as inflation and increased cost in almost EVERYTHING. Being leaders, we too just cant keep on running the race without out own supplies! We need the gasoline that keeps on fueling us and giving us that kind of incentive to pursue greater heights.

During the June Holiday camps, when all of you were asked some cheem questions by the teachers, most of us presented the idea of seminars and talks. In short, you guys covered loads on PREPARATIONS for your journey. Which is a good thing! It means that you're looking at the subject now heads on. But you're not looking in depth enough. Seminars and talks are wonderful stuff to get us have the right amount of ignition to start off the race. As they say a good start is half the battle won. But a good FINISH is then a full battle won. At the end, people will want to know and remember how you FINISH the race! Not how you started out.

A leader's future is shaped by the people closet to him/her. A leader's personal network is his emotional fuel : his models, heroes, mentors, inner-circle and accountability partners!

We, being TYPICAL SINGAPOREANS (i'm kidding) always want to make use every single bit of the things we have. Or sometimes we're just plain lazy. We wont do our assignment till the due date is the next day. Come on! admit that! I'm guilty of it too! Anyway, that is a really bad thing! Espescially when what you need is something that need loads of time to attain! Take the oil industry for example, to get barrels of oil, isnt something thats achievable over a day or two! Oil comes from fossilised bones, burried under the ground,under immense pressure bla bla bla. After hundreds of years, they slowly transform to oil! Its the same as for us! Our emotional fuel is extremely important yet,its something we always overlook.

You dont have to be all popular and awesome to have a wide range of personal network. Whoever told you that a larger network may even be a good thing! What you need is close and tightly knitted network. This is something that can only be known after it stands the test of time and proven itself to be of high quaility use! We cant just delude ourselves that we're good and then run on our own fuel! It'll just kill us. We need leaders who are FILLED UP with emotional fuel to run the race! So that they wont have a bias desicion that will feed their own fuel. If a leader is using his target audiance to achieve that, then, with immediate or swift effect, he must step down from the leadership until his emotional fuel is filled up.

It isnt easy to be a perfect leader. There are bound to be people who will take you down for a reason or another. This perfectly reasons why the need for a close and tightly knitted network is needed! As some of you might have noticed that during the last one year, I did not mention any vision for the board. Nor did I seem to run towards any visible goal. Because I believe that after my era, you guys have the chance to start a revival for the school. You guys can start something extraodinary to make a difference. My vision was that YOU get YOUR own visions! For the s3s', that when you take over you will be able to deliberate out your own vision which I believe that I was not able to implement.

Look into yourself. Who are the people who falls under your category of :
1) Role Models
2) Heroes
3) Mentors
4) Disciple (I'll explain this next post)
5) Inner-circle
6) People who are close and hold you accountable for your actions

You may not fufil ALL the 6 spaces but be true to yourself and see what are you lacking in, and ask yourself how can I further improve? Not to be religious or anything, but there's 2 verses I would like to share:
" Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another" Proverbs 27:17
" Where there is no guidiance, the people fall, but in the abudance of counselors there is victory"
Proverbs 11:14

Hope you will meditate and think about these two verses. I believe in which it applies to anything and anyone.

--Best regards, Isaac Liu.