RURAL LEADERSHIP 



time reveals the fact that the great leaders have been men of 

 virility. 



A ninth essential of leadership is will power. No one can 

 live either a satisfactory or a successful life that does not 

 make his will regnant in his life. A will so dominant that it 

 controls a life with the ease with which the steering wheel 

 directs the flying seven-passenger automobile, causes the 

 possessor to take pride in his enviable possession. How 

 many, many persons make shipwreck of their lives simply 

 because the passions or the appetites are in control instead 

 of the volitional faculty. The reason why centuries elapsed 

 after the fall of the Roman Empire before some semblance of 

 order prevailed in the barbarian world, was because men were 

 constantly giving vent to their passions and destroying all 

 beginnings of orderly government as soon as evidences of 

 stability began to appear. The result was, settled conditions 

 were long delayed in central Europe. Some people go through 

 life like the barbarians of the Dark Ages. Passions and 

 appetites rule them, and their wills are ever subservient to 

 the dictates of their lower natures. The progress of civiliza- 

 tion means first and foremost the increasing dominancy of 

 the will. 



The first step for the individual is getting complete control 

 of self, since only self-controlled persons have success in the 

 direction of others. Many a person has spoiled all his chances 

 for successful leadership because of inability to master self. 

 He who rules himself rules a multitude. But in ruling others 

 one must not push his will into too great prominence. If 

 those who are led see in the leader a tendency to rule them 

 with an iron hand or to make his will law among them or to 

 show intolerance of the opinions of others or even to give 

 reluctant consideration to others' views, his effectiveness as 

 a leader is much reduced. The ideal leader is the one who 

 understands the art of self-abnegation. He who can bring 

 out the ideas and plans of others, pave the way for the adop- 

 tion of those that seem workable, push the co-laborer that has 

 initiative and brains without giving offense to the fellow whose 



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