Cleanliness & Everyday Leadership

Let me start with a story, It was about two years ago I attended the session which was arranged by the university. They had invited notable guest speakers, entrepreneurs, and famous singers. I was very excited to listen to entrepreneurs and motivational speakers.

The organizers had beautifully decorated the stage with balloons and ribbons. The students were much energetic. Sahir Ali Bhaga’s performance was splendid. So finally, our long-awaited guest had arrived. He was a social entrepreneur and motivational speaker. He cast a spell over the audience. The audience was mesmerized by his speech.

After the speech was over, I decided to follow him down the stairs to get a picture with him. He was a gentle and kind person. After getting the picture, I was going to a parking area to get my bike. Nobody was there. Suddenly I saw him (speaker) picking a wrapper from the ground and throwing it into the basket. It was an astonishing moment for me because I had never seen such a humble person at this position. I found this a beautiful piece of lesson from my mentor. He was a notable motivational speaker of Pakistan “ Mr. Umair Jaliawala.”

It was a perfect example of everyday leadership. Leadership is not about having a top position or being a manager. Most of us think that true leadership happens only when we create a global-scale impact. It is about taking responsibility for your work, helping someone in need, take care of your surroundings. These are all acts of everyday leadership.

Yesterday, I was lying in my bedroom and my niece was making a drawing on paper. I watched her playing with the paper. Draw something on the paper then tore it down. I did not try to stop her but after that, I started picking that piece of paper that she had thrown on the ground. While picking the papers, she comes to me and started collecting the pieces with the intention to help. I realized that the children understand things by doing not by just asking. It also made me realize that our small acts really matters which was initiated by my mentor then.

As Marianne Williamson said, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually who are we not to be? And as we let our own light shine, we give other people permission to do the same.”

We have come across many things like this in our surroundings but we don’t care. This incident really moved me. It made me realize that sometimes it doesn’t take much effort to inspire someone. Sometimes we often think after accomplishing something then we would be able to make a difference. If we just started taking care of our small wrapper, that’s where the real difference would initiate.

Our Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) said, “Cleanliness is half of the faith.”