A lonely leader

Okay, as said in the previous note, we planned for the big event which was the opening convocation at Chatham University last Sunday. The main purpose of the event was to welcome new and returning students. Chatham has initiated a program named Global Focus which will focus on one country or one region every year for students to obtain understanding of selected country or region. More information about the program can be found here. This year, Vietnam was chosen because of two reasons: 1. Vietnam is globally interesting and 2. Vietnam has its presence in Pittsburgh through the Vietnamese Community. I supported the program as an intern, mainly to kill my time in Pittsburgh. Pitt is a very charming city, everything looks so ancient with numerous churches. It might be exaggerated when saying that Pitt is as beautiful and elegant as DC. But you know, after spending two months in NY, returning to Pitt is just like going to the countryside. I guess NY is the only place worth living in this country. Everywhere else is so dead and boring.

Back to the event I mentioned earlier, most Vietnamese students in Pitt are pursing PhD in University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University (I have no idea of CMU until my boyfriend keeps talking about its first ranking among top engineering and CS schools in the States. It now ranks the 6th by U.S. News). I, again, acted the role as the leader to call for people's contribution to the convocation. Sometimes I hate myself for doing that. If people don't fucking care, why should I try to beg for their forced kindness? I was so fed up with event management - the thing I tried to give up a million times when I realized my previous job - as Communication Assistant - was exactly an entertaining crap. Every job has its own crap, though. Crappy bosses count!

I emailed the whole group shortly after a meeting with coordinator of the program. It was only a week left before the event took place. I thought it was impossible and deep inside, I didn't want to invest a hundred percent of my time and efforts into an anticipated failure. My boyfriend did not allow it happen. He insisted that we could do it and it was only the matter of time to have people's attention. Sadly enough, he was right. Mobilizing resources is tough at the first place but you don't need to worry about anything else once resources are allocated to the work. Being a leader is easy, some might argue that, all you need to do is just point out your finger and as a miracle, somebody will make things done in a way you wish. Easy huh? No way, being a leader is probably the hardest thing. You have to be very firm and assertive, you have to know what you want to achieve with no second of hesitance. On the other hand, you need to be very flexible, open-minded and supposed-to-be nice and understanding. "I understand you fully. You are absolutely right", be careful, the hidden part is "BUT you still have to do what I asked". As a leader, you have to take the main responsibility and be prepared to take the opposite side against others. Nobody likes a leader. Nobody wants to make friend with a leader. Instead, they want to stay away as much as they can. Being a leader is equal to being lonely and even aliened. Can people really avoid being leaders? I guess the answer is as hard as can you deny your identity. Leadership is an inborn ability that is granted to a minority of people otherwise we will have a bunch of leaders with no followers.

(Cont)