College Admissions Essay: Are Leaders Unique?

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” John C. Maxwell

My heart raced uncontrollably as I waited for my turn to come. I was sitting, for the first time, in a classroom in the United States, surrounded by people who were at least 2 years older than I was. Professor Knapp had asked for each one of us to stand up and state the reason why we were taking the Entrepreneurship course that summer at the University of Southern California. I thought I was prepared to answer what seemed like such a simple question, until I heard the responses that my fellow classmates were giving. “I want to expand my apparel business to other states” “I want to make even more than the 70 thousand dollars I made in the stock market last year” “I want universities to encourage the use of the app I built”. What was I supposed

From the vantage point of the present, it is easy to look back at the tenure of any great leader and draw conclusions about just what it was that made him/her great. We can examine the circumstances under which their leadership flourished; piece together what we know of their character and personality traits; delve into the factors that may have driven them; and dissect their leadership style all in an effort to pinpoint the source of their success. The ‘Great Man’ theory, popular in the 19th century and now thoroughly debunked, held that leaders are born, not made; suggesting that men like George Washington, Martin Luther King Jr., and Winston Churchill were born with the innate capacity to change the world (Landis,

Being a leader has always been extremely important to me. The past few years I have held many leadership positions to deepen my skills as a leader. Some of my most notable leadership positions of high school were that I was the secretary of my class, the secretary of my school’s National Honor Society, a member of the Youth Council for the Teen Leadership Corps, and a Student Ambassador for my high school. I have recently been chosen as a Peer Leader for the College of Business Administration (CBA), meaning that I will be available to help incoming freshman with whatever they may need as they make the transition to college. I was also chosen by the dean to give a speech at one of the largest high school visits for the CBA in order to inspire students to choose to come to Bowling Green. This was a very important experience for me because I had many high school seniors come up to me after the speech and ask me questions and reached out for advice from me. It is important to me that people value my advice because I believe that giving good advice is an imperative part of being a leader.

I have always been interested in “doing my own thing” or, better known as, entrepreneurship. In high school, I would buy T-shirts, sweatshirts, and hats in bulk. I’d embroider little emblems on them and mark up the price by 100%. People at school would buy $1 shirts and pay $9 for my craftsmanship. However, I wanted bigger and better things. I channeled Andrew Carnegie in my approach to business: why just stop at my little venture when I could vertically integrate and market for myself? I decided to invest all my money in a new cause and thus, my own social media marketing company was born. The skills I’ve learned in starting my company is something that cannot be taught. I would relish the opportunity to grow and learn at an institution like The Stephen M. Ross School of Business that understands the importance of innovation and exploration.

As a growing debate, the question at hand is whether great leaders are born with specific leadership traits, or if one can be taught certain traits over time. According to (Wikipedia.com) the approach of listing leadership qualities, often termed "trait theory of leadership", assumes certain traits or characteristics will tend to lead to effective leadership. I believe that leadership traits such as honest, competent, initiative, inspiring, hardworking, intelligent, and the ability to lead the masses, are some of the leadership traits one should possess. Within this paper, I will examine the overall concept of leadership traits, while observing the traits that were, or can be associated with successful leaders.

Many people are born to lead and others learn to lead, but the one key ingredient in leadership whether you are born or taught, is passion. My passion is HR. I want to serve the employees of my company and try to make each interaction with HR a positive one, even in difficult circumstances. People are excited and motivated by others who are passionate about what they do. “Leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow” (Christian Reflections on the Leadership Challenge, 2004, p. 119). I will need to build a strong foundation with those I lead and passion and inspiration are just the beginning. For my foundation to be passionate, inspiring and strong I must be credible,

This paper will profile Jeff Hawkins, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for PalmOne, Inc. examining qualities that Mr. Hawkins exhibits that make him influential leader. The paper will also examine details of the business strategy that make this man an exceptional innovator and his contribution to eBusiness technology.

To me, leadership is more than a title. It is more than just being in charge. Leadership is honestly, learning, listening, and most importantly application. Leadership means going the extra mile or two, doing the right thing no matter who’s looking, staying encouraged and encouraging other even when times are hard and you have every reason to quit. Leadership doesn’t mean you’re rich, well known, liked, or respected but it does mean you are a passionate, caring, and authentic. Leadership means you care about something so much you are willing to risk everything you have for this belief or idea. Leadership is doing whatever you can in your power to make things better for those around you.

The Trait Approach was the 1st systematic attempt to study leadership. In the 20th century it was known as the “great man” theory. This approach takes a look at the leaders personal attributes such as but not limited to: motivation, energy, intuition, creativity, persuasiveness and foresight. Some of the traits that are essential to this list include: intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity and sociability. Thus it focuses mainly on the leader and not on the followers or situations. The strengths of the Trait Approach includes: 1) it is intuitively appealing, 2) it has research to back it’s theory, 3) it highlights the leader, 4) it identifies what the traits of a leader should have and whether the traits we do

My entrepreneurial spirit is created in part by how I perceive the world. When I see problems with our world, they are not insurmountable mountains but rather opportunities. They are opportunities for me personally to gain and for all those that I would help by fixing that problem. This can be anything from the mundane to the most serious issue of our time. An example of this is the amount of vegetable waste people produce in their homes and their hesitancy to compost this waste. I perceived this problem and tried to come up with a solution. There were some people

The basic premise for leadership is the process of influencing other people to follow your lead in order to accomplish a goal. It is about the relationship between the leader and the followers. A good leader tries to motivate people to bring about positive changes revealing a common objective without using coercion or manipulation. Leadership is not about control, but permitting interaction and communication between the leader and the individual followers. With empowering others, leaders build a foundation of collaborative thinking and encourage an atmosphere of personal involvement; a leader can strengthen the respect and loyalty of his or her followers. Leaders can affect this process by applying their own personal characteristics, such

Tim Westergren’s upbringing, college experience and immediate post-college work scream entrepreneur. He was curious, creative, bright and loathed rule and structure. He was also a natural leader who could easily persuade others. Though he struggled with a scattered attention span and with impatience. These attributes are characteristic of many entrepreneurs.

LEADERS ARE BORN NOT MADE There have been an age long debate, and humans since beginning of time, have tried to come up with an answer to this question – Are Leaders born or are they made?. This question has generated an age long debate, which in turn has resulted in various school of thoughts, some believe that leaders are born, while others think otherwise. My contribution to this lifelong debate will serve as a pointer to my position on this issue. I strongly believe that leaders are born and not made. Who is a Leader? - “A leader is a person who guides others toward a common goal, showing the way by example, and creating an environment in which other team members feel actively involved in the entire process. A leader is not the boss of

Determination, courage, and confidence are all characteristics needed to be a good leader. The principal player in a music group is considered to be a leader. Even bands need leaders, if we didn’t have leaders where would we be today? John Quincy Adams once said, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” A good leader is liked by the people, has power, and produces followers. When there is an unwillingness to make things happen, to take the initiative and accept responsibility; this is when a leader emerges. Leaders develop through drive, creativity, and devotion.