Here I come Detroit

I know nothing about Detroit except that it is home to the Detroit Tigers. I think that is pretty sad on my part. In fact, I only go to Detroit for Tiger games when I can go for free. It isn’t just me though. Plenty of people don’t know this grand city. It was home to the car manufacture back in its hayday. The motor city was a hustling and busy place. However, over time it has fallen into what I have heard a state of “ruin”. I wish I could put my two cents in, but I must wait till I get there. On a light side of things I am going this weekend for a leader based program. I can’t wait!

Perhaps the social issue I am quite familiar with is poverty. People living off welfare, on the streets, and without the proper necessities to live. It is devastating to know it happens in my own home state. How I learned about this is by the ear. People talk about Detroit as if it is on fire every other week. I don’t think it is that bad I want to be optimistic about this city. I hope to finally realize what people are saying.

The vision of the leadership institute is to “prepare the next generation of individuals who will act responsibly to improve the quality of life”. We find leaders of today. Perhaps a leader could be in Detroit. It’s up to a community of leaders to get to them and help them in their community. I believe that as leaders at CMU we have the responsibility to further our learning of service experience. There are workers right now in Detroit that clean up the community everyday. This experience and what I hope to get out of it is to understand the struggle and the commit people have to help grow a community.

What I think the trip to Detroit will help me grow in is to understand the purpose of the LI. Even though it states, “to prepare Michigan students and citizens for leadership roles in an increasingly complex and challenging society” I need to know where I fit. How will I make that difference?

Ted Talk Reflection

Recently in the month of February I watched a Ted Talk video. It featured a man name Simon Sinek, and he introduced the audience to a reason of how some leaders/business manage to be more successful than others.

Simon Sinek took a pen and pad and drew a huge circle. He then proceeded to draw two more circles within that huge circle. He labeled the outer most circle “What”, the middle ring “How”, and the inner circle he wrote “Why.” By doing so Sinek points to the audience that most companies work from the outside circle into the inner circle. Only a few companies like Apple, as a primary example, started from the “Why they do this” to the “What they do.” They made eventually more money than any other name brand computer company.

This trick is no secret. Most leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. started with “why.”MLK is best known for civil rights movements. He proclaimed, “I have a dream” and not “I have a plan” which differs greatly. He knew deep down in his soul that why he did it was that he was motivated by making equality throughout the whole United States of America. Then he proceeded to do demonstration’s and speeches across the southern states for his “How.” Finally, he tells people he so happens to be a civil rights leader.

I was truly inspired by this Ted Talk that it made me reflect back at all my previous engagements and how I presented myself as a leader to others. There was times that I had huge successful points in my Boy Scouting career, and then there wasn’t so great of times. Perhaps I should focus solely on helping and teaching others rather than telling them my qualifications of what makes me capable of being a leader. I currently have on my desktop a notecard with just the words, “Why do I do this.”

It’s also important to inspire others. A personal goal that I have is to inspire others to carpe the heck out of their diem. When I was growing up I was my introverted than extroverted. Then it changed as soon as I went into middle school. Every year my confidence in myself flourished. To this day I still hold back at times. However, my personal growth has increased greatly.

My good friends around me were well introverted. It changed though when they went into high school. It’s good to see life rapidly get energetic in people. I love to see people be movers and doers. I understand that people prefer being introverted, but I want them to know anytime they want to act crazy run wild it’s okay. Thinking outside the box is a way to keep the mind imaginative.