Nelson Mandela - A Portrait of a Leader

While normally this blog centers around my business plan, the industry and news that revolves around the two I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of Nelson Mandela.  As someone who is building a company and is looking to grow and build a strong community around my business I want to thank Nelson Mandela for living a life as an incredible role model.  While business ideas and technology comes and goes one thing that Mandela taught us is that integrity and love for your fellow man will never become obsolete.

While I have never met Nelson Mandela nor any sort of interactions with him or his camp I have always respected Mandela's strong anti-racists stance and been a fan of his teaching and words.  Mandela taught us the value of human life, how to respect opposing parties views and how to lead at a time when very few people wanted to follow.

As one who aspires to lead there are plenty of tips and advice to take away from Nelson Mandela. Here's a few that I've written down.

• Respect the opinion of others, even if it starkly contrasts yours. While Mandela fought racial discrimination his whole life he made sure at the start of his presidency to not isolate his opposition.  In fact Mandela kept many of his opposing party members close to him and allowed his actions and leadership to speak for itself. This in turn resulted in many of his opposers to become his closest followers.  An incredible lesson for those of us leaving our Master's program and going into management roles.
  "I like friends who have independent minds because they tend to see problems from all angles"
• Lead by example and do it through hard work. Mandela struggled his first years in office with steep opposition and a divided country.  As I mentioned in the previous point Mandela made some of his biggest opposers players in his political system.  While Mandela allowed dissenting views to be present in his regime he took it a step further and allowed his opposition places of perceived power.  Mandela has a great quote about this leadership strategy below.
  "Lead from the back - and let others believe they are in front"
• You can be the smartest and most qualified but you won't have followers until you first have heart. One of the biggest differences we can see with Mandela over other political leaders is that Mandela has passionate followers.  Mandela gained these followers over the course of his life by proving over and over again that he loved his country and his people.
  "A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination"

Nelson Mandela will be greatly missed but his teaching will live on through the centuries as his is remembered for his passion, his wisdom and most importantly his love of people.


“Difficulties break some men but make others.” (From a letter to wife, Winnie Mandela, from Robben Island, February 1975)