The Leader of the Pack
Leadership is a mystery. Why do people follow one person but not another? What quality in a person leads others to be lead by someone? Is leadership a gift of the mind or the heart? It depends, I think on the kind of leadership in question - some lead by the power of their thought, others by the power of the personality, and the heart that powers it.
Fintan Nadym Cawley is a very sweet boy: there is great kindness and thoughtfulness in him, but it is not these qualities that make others follow him. There is something engaging about him, some charisma that emboldens others to imitate him, to be like him.
Fintan makes his own choices, guided by his own desires. A story of an incident in school, captures his charisma at work. Fintan is now three years old, but this happened when he was two. The teacher had set the class the task of colouring something on paper. Fintan began to do so, along with the rest of the class, until he had a better idea. He started colouring the top of the table, finding it a much more interesting artistic medium. The teacher scolded him, of course. He had a solution to that, too: he crept under the table, where he could no longer be seen by the teacher, and began to colour the underside of the table. Seeing this, the whole class joined in, crawling under the table and beginning to colour the underside of the table, like Fintan.
This is typical of Fintan: he does something new and the other children follow him. One secret of his success in getting others to follow him, is that he is original. He does things no other kid thought to do...and so, having seen him do it, they imitate him.
Interestingly, Fintan is not one to imitate others: he follows his own heart, in all things, and does what he wishes. His is a creative spirit. He is a true leader of the pack.
Fintan Nadym Cawley is a very sweet boy: there is great kindness and thoughtfulness in him, but it is not these qualities that make others follow him. There is something engaging about him, some charisma that emboldens others to imitate him, to be like him.
Fintan makes his own choices, guided by his own desires. A story of an incident in school, captures his charisma at work. Fintan is now three years old, but this happened when he was two. The teacher had set the class the task of colouring something on paper. Fintan began to do so, along with the rest of the class, until he had a better idea. He started colouring the top of the table, finding it a much more interesting artistic medium. The teacher scolded him, of course. He had a solution to that, too: he crept under the table, where he could no longer be seen by the teacher, and began to colour the underside of the table. Seeing this, the whole class joined in, crawling under the table and beginning to colour the underside of the table, like Fintan.
This is typical of Fintan: he does something new and the other children follow him. One secret of his success in getting others to follow him, is that he is original. He does things no other kid thought to do...and so, having seen him do it, they imitate him.
Interestingly, Fintan is not one to imitate others: he follows his own heart, in all things, and does what he wishes. His is a creative spirit. He is a true leader of the pack.
For more on Fintan Nadym Cawley as a natural hero see:
For an introduction to his brother, Ainan Celeste Cawley, six, a scientific child prodigy, go to:
Photograph by Syahidah Osman Cawley
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