Plant a seed of Leadership at home

 

As we concluded our tour of Bombululu, my friend took a seed of an exotic tree to plant in his home country. I was a little surprised because there did not appear to be anything special or magnificent about the tree that was variously scattered around this part of the world. Many other types of trees receive better attention and are much more attractive than the long withering bush my professor friend was wildly excited about. He told me that a seedling of the local tress was priced ten times higher in his own country for its presumably medicinal and soil conservation value or perhaps its "exotic" prowess.  

That got me thinking. What if leadership was that disheveled tree? Disrespected, battered and shunted aside! Whose value was essentially unknown and really not that impressive, but rather ridiculous in appearance?! However, the more powerful point of instruction from the professors’ seed class was his act of courage and responsibility to ensure that the seed got home and would never be lost! Someday the tree would also be ubiquitous in his country – playing its silent role in the shadows of the forest of humanity – so that leadership should not perish from the earth. I often worry about how many leadership forests are growing around Africa, but maybe I should be more concerned about how many seeds are being planted. Many years ago in my graduate class, another professor told me he had visited 29 of Africa’s 54 countries! I was disheartened, because I thought I could never hope match his travel log on the continent. But the second professor tells me all I need is to plant a seed. At the last count, I had planted maybe forty.  Plant a seed of leadership at home or just where you are. You never know how far the seed will travel in time.