The leader and followers

Last friday night, Theta Psi, the national’s first sustainability fraternity, held small debates among active members, one of those was “whether to be a leader or to be a follower is better”. The goal is to convince the facilitator why one is better than the other.

I was on the “leader” side. Two points we think about being a leader is better were that:

—1. “In a big movement, the followers are also leaders, because they motivate people around them, and are willing to learn how to move on”.

—2. “Without followers, leaders can do nothing”

This come back to the video called “First follower” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amMCVAJQ&feature=youtu.be) , which describes how the first follower turns “a lone nut into a leader” in a dancing “movement”. I think the basic idea is that:

Leader and Follower, they are equally important.

In sustainability field, being a leader means to strive for the right thing even most of the people don’t agree with you at that moment. Being a leader doesn’t mean to do something great, doesn’t mean you have to build a club or a fraternity, but mean doing those small things that can bring an impact to the world, such as having a drink without using plastic straws.

Therefore, two principles become important when start being a leader: Persistent and knowing why it’s meaningful to persist.

“Persistent” means regardless how other people think about you, keep doing what you are doing. For example, having a drink without using straws might look very weird and awkward at the beginning. Your friends might disagree with you, or judge that. To persist is not an easy thing. Thus, knowing why it’s meaningful to do it is also very important, also is the point of how to get the first follower.

Tell your friend how straws are impacting sea turtles and the environment might be a good start, once people agree with that and start do the same thing as you did, you get your first follower. Being a follower doesn’t mean blindly follow the instructions given by the leader. Followers on some points are also leaders in their own small groups. A leader introduced a small change at the beginning, followers make the change get a big result. And that’s a successful movement.

Sustainability, as a relatively new field which hasn’t been fully adapted in people’s life style, calls for everyone to be a leader. But before we know what to do, the majority is just follower. Overtime, we can bring impact to our own community, and create a common cause.