Being a Leader Isn't Always so Great

I used to think that there was one definition of the word leader.  This definition was that a leader is someone everyone looks up to, and who usually makes the right decisions.  However, characters from the book I just finished, The Mark of Athena, by Rick Riordan helped me realize that being a leader can be really hard.  It's not always easy to make the right decisions, and it can affect the person negatively on the inside.

In the book. I learned that with leadership, the leader must be willing to sacrifice things for the better good.  For example, one of the main characters named Frank told his friend Leo that Leo would rather save machines than people.  At first, Leo shrugged this off, but when his friends were in danger, he had to choose between the machines or them.  He decided to be a true leader and friend and risked the technology and in the meantime, realized what it takes to be a leader.  Piper was another main character who had to sacrifice something to save the majority.  In this case, she sacrificed herself.  Although she didn't die, she was willing to give up everything to save her drowning friends.  This shows that leaders have the tough job of having to make the right decision, and that can be as hard as sacrificing things on order to help the majority.

Besides the fact that leaders in the book were physically wounded in battle, they were also hurt internally.  For example, both Percy and Jason have always been leaders their entire life.  Everyone just expects them to do something phenomenal.  However, this just makes them feel bad when they don't meet everyone's expectations.  It also sets a pressure on them that sometimes makes them go crazy.  I also hate to bring out the bad qualities of them, but being a leader can also make them stuck up.  Everyone thinks they're so great, and so they start to believe it and think they are invincible.  Although they are pretty wonderful people, pride can sometimes be harmful.  For example, Jason had said, "I've always been the leader.  Being with equals on this quest makes me feel like I'm failing."  This shows that their pride and feelings can be hurt because they thought they were the best, and it's hard to take when there is more than one leader.  Overall, there can be negative affects to being a leader.

In conclusion, this book has helped me see so many sides of being a leader.  The characters in this story were shaped to realize what being a leader really means.  Usually in stories, people praise the leader and don't stop to think about what this is actually doing to them.  This makes me think about people in reality today.  I think it's good to have someone in charge, but maybe everyone should be given a chance so nobody is alone when it comes to sacrifice and internal pain from trying to be the best leader ever.