L​ead or Follow?

One of the most important factors of success is not being satisfied with merely following. When you are just

• following orders
• following trends
• following people

instead of being yourself and doing what’s best for you you won’t succeed. It’s not even about selfishness or money.

Whatever success means to you you have to find out on your own terms. You can’t succeed by chasing success others are defining for you. You need to find your own path.

Why do we follow?

Do you prefer leading or following? I’m not speaking of following on Twitter. Following is a general way of life most people adhere to.

In a way it has something to do with weakness, laziness or fear. You follow a path people went before you because you are either too weak, lazy or fearful to find your own.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t judge you here. I’m talking from my own experience. Of course there are manifold reasons to follow.

You need to follow first until you are able to explore on your own and then lead others. Leaders are not born, they develop out of experience.

Later in life or for some of us from birth leading or self-reliance is not an option. A plethora of health problems can make you more dependent than other people.

To lead you need to follow first

Leading is not as easy as it might seem when others do it and you just follow. You need at least

• health
• strength
• optimism

to become self-reliant and being able to lead. Of course nobody is really an island. What I refer to is relative independence of thought and choosing a way of life consciously.

As long as you are young, inexperienced or untrained the only way is to follow until you have the skills to be self-reliant or even a leader.

Y​ou will never be the first to do something when you just follow others.

In business we speak of the unique selling proposition that enables your business to stand out. Offering the same products and services as everybody else is risky business.

How do you think you will be able to have an USP when you just copy something someone has done before you?

Ideally you discover your unique talent and way of looking at things. You can even be disabled or chronically ill but you can’t just parrot others and try to be someone you’re not.

Is being a leader really the goal?

I’​m not talking about leading like in “being a leader” either. The German word for leader is “Führer”. No kidding!

You know who the most well known leader in Germany was. I don’t want people​ to follow me either. I want other be independent as well.

Many of the Web celebrities have a business model of making other people follow them.

They can sell you affiliate products they recommend and make you spread their message on social media. In extreme cases this is just a pyramid scheme.

T​he people who follow me on Twitter or elsewhere are not followers of that kind. They are people who lead themselves. These people find and follow their own path.

Your own path is going the hard way

It’s not easy to find your own way of doing things these days. You get inundated with information, choices and your desires are constantly played with.

When you attempt to find your own path you need to invest more

1. time
2. effort
3. money

It’s of course easier to go the same way others paved for you.

Almost the whole make money online blogging industry is based on the wrong leader-follower relationship.

The optimal win to win situation is when peers work together and support each other.

This mutual aid or solidarity can still be found in the world. Even online peopel convene ready to help each other. You have actively look for them.

I understand why people are following exploitative​ and deceiving individuals like. They appear strong while you are feeling weak yourself.

You are not lazy, are you?

You may even suffer from depression so that you are not really “lazy”. You may work from 9 to 5 or longer and be too tired to choose your own path.

Of course only you know yourself whether you are truly unable to accomplish things or whether you are just following others like a zombie staring into a screen all day.

You have to lead yourself instead of following false idols.

I don’t want to be your idol. I don’t want to show you my way of doing things in order to be able to sell you products. I want you to find your own way.

Tell me in the comment section what path you have chosen and how a conscious choice led to becoming more independent. Are you still following or leading a life you chose to?

Last updated: May 12th, 2017. I added a new image and rewrote the post to focus less on me and to be more understanding of the “weak and lazy”.