Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: What Makes A Good Leader

No one has gone through life and hasn’t received guidance. The guidance we receive plays a great role in the type of people we turn out to be. That makes the leaders we receive our guidance from so important to us, whether they may be a parent, teacher or role model. In this essay I'll explain what makes a good leader, who is a good leader and what kind of leader I think I am or will be. On January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia the legendary leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born. Influenced by his mother, Alberta Williams King; his father, Martin Luther King Sr.; and his Baptist faith, he became a minister and later a civil rights activist best known for his methods of nonviolent civil disobedience. Throughout his life he faced criticism and hostility towards his beliefs, race, and culture. However, inspired by leaders like Gandhi and Leo Tolstoy, he used the most humane method of response, peace. Dr. King was arrested twenty times, received many threatening phone calls, and had his house set on fire and bombed. Despite all of these acts of hate, Dr. King never dropped to the perpetrators

Without patience nothing will be definite: good relationships cannot be formed, a positive attitude will be difficult to achieve, and hasty decisions will be made easily. Without patience a leader can become quick-tempered and succumb negative influence, all of their rulings will be rushed and sloppy. Without a passion, a leader becomes weak: without passion, a leader isn’t confident in anything they’re doing or in the people they’re leading, there is no excitement, thus, no organized value among the leader and those being led, and no real commitment to the task at hand, the goal isn’t as important to the leader as a regular task. Finally, without persistence, nothing will be completed or achieved: without persistence, as soon as one thing goes wrong, the leader will give up on whatever he/she is