Leadership At Its Finest

   How many Lollipop moments have you created? Drew Dudley starts off by describing what a lollipop moment is, which is basically a moment where someone made you feel better in a certain way. He then explains that not only have we had these lollipop moments, but we were the reason for another person's one without even noticing. It can sometimes be scary to think about yourself as someone that powerful, to change someone's life. You may think "what if it's not true what I said, what if I ruin their life?". However, this is just an excuse we make to not think of ourselves as 'leaders'. Dudley states that "As long as we make leadership something bigger than us, as long as we keep leadership something beyond us, as long as we make it about changing the world, we give ourselves an excuse not to expect it"(0:40). He then explains how people have knowledge that can benefit others but are too afraid to show it. Leadership is about making people's lives better, improving them in any factor, mentally, physically, or emotionally, and being the reason for their success. It is very important to cherish these lollipop moments and appreciate the moments that were given to you.  

Dudley uses sarcasm at the beginning when he talks about celebrating birthdays where "all you have to do is not die for 365 days"(0:14). He says that to show the importance of letting someone know he was the reason for a lollipop moment. "It is our light and not our darkness that frightens us,"(0:54), Dudley calls to action that we stop thinking that way and use our light as beneficial as we can. Money, power, titles, and influence are 4 things that Dudley things we should have less impact on, and focus more on the impact of leadership. "We need to redefine leadership as being about lollipop moments"(1:17). It's crucial to acknowledge the times we were the reason for a lollipop moment, acknowledge the times we improved someone's life, and acknowledge the times we were leaders. Improving one's life seems simple, but not small.    

In 2016, I had stopped training football. I used to play in Gezira Club, but I encountered many problems that let me stop training. After that, I had trials at Wadi Degla. However, the coaches showed no interest in me and weren't even concentrating on my talent. I would say it was because of my body, it was smaller than children my age. 2 years have passed and times kept on getting harder. I became antisocial and spent the majority of my time in front of screens, phones, laptops, even TVs. I started to feel a little depressed. An old friend of mine, Boshra, told me to meet a football coach in Heliopolis. He bragged about me being a star and a big player. When I went, it was night and there was no training. Boshra, me, and coach Tamer sat down and he told me that it doesn't matter what I look like, what matters is how I play and my discipline. Me knowing myself, I knew it was my time to shine. As I was departing, Boshra spoke to me in private and told me, "I know how great you are. If I knew sooner, I would have told the coach right away. He's a good friend of mine. You're gonna have a great impact on this team. I know you will". Boshra is now a great friend of mine that I will always respect. This is my lollipop moment, do you have one?