Of Sheep And Men

by Matt Dittsworth

Have you ever notice that some people are followers and others are leaders? I have and learned that we have to have both in the world to make everything work. I fully believe that you have to be a great follower to be a great leader, and I believe that there are leaders of good and leaders of bad. I think that everyone of us has the potential to lead someone. Speaking of leaders, I am reminded of a story.

One day I was driving through Colorado in the Rocky Mountains and I watched a herd of sheep crossing the highway, so I had to stop and let them by. This type of interruption to my day happened quite frequently but as I watched these sheep this particular day I noticed that all of a sudden one stopped and looked down at the yellow double line in the middle of the road. Soon all the sheep behind stopped. This sheep was now the leader in this group if only for a second.

All the sheep behind and to the side were looking right at the "leader" to see what was going on. I noticed that these other sheep stopped to see what the leader had seen. The look on the sheep’s face was as if trying to figure out what to do about the double lines in the road. So this sheep jumped up as high as it could to clear the obstacle and so the rest of the sheep started jumping over the lines too. They all did this even though they have crossed the highway 100 times in the past.

Are you a leader or follower? That's what I thought of when I saw the sheep; even though it knew it could walk over the yellow lines one sheep stopped and questioned it so the rest questioned it too. Sometimes people live their life, knowing what they want to do but then they question it because somebody brings up some kind of problem or obstacle. I don’t think we can listen to other people when it comes to our goals and dreams.

Of course we have mentors and other people we look up to that can offer advice and even people we don't look up to but respect that can offer advice but we don't have to let it change our direction we can use it as some guidance or just toss it out if we want to. Ultimately we have to make a choice, and live with the consequences. Just because the sheep thought that it couldn't jump over the yellow lines the rest of them stopped until another one came by and just walked across the lines and then of course the rest of the sheep just walk across too. So don’t be a sheep and follow the crowd, make your own path, jump over the lines and let everyone follow you for a while.

Are you a leader or follower in life? Can you change roles? 

source : http://www.streetarticles.com/leadership/of-sheep-and-men