CLAUDIU IONESCU
talking to
THOMAS JACKSON (part 4)
What are the most important qualities for successful leadership in Freemasonry? Not the ego, of course.
I answered a great deal of that in my last responses. First of all, you have to recognize that in many cases the leaders that we find inherited the capability of being great leaders. You have to have some abilities to begin with, and great leaders really did inherit the quality for their greatness.
Secondly, all great leaders have to acquire some of that ability also. I spent 17 years as a biology teacher and I emphasized, as a biologist, we are what we are for two reasons: the first reason – we inherited what we were, but then we acquired what we became.
The same is true in leadership. First of all, you have to have some abilities to be a leader, but secondly you have to acquire abilities to be a great leader. And in order to be a great leader and to leave a legacy, you also have to be able to control that ego. I’ve seen so many good men, great leaders in Freemasonry, who let their egos become their driving force in their lives.
So, to be a good leader you have to have inherited the potential to be a leader, then you have to use that potential. I used to use the illustration when I was teaching that I look at the world today with its lack of some of the great artists and great scientists that existed in the past, men like Michelangelo and Da Vinci and Newton, and great athletes and I emphasized at the time that no matter how much I tried to practice art I would never be a Da Vinci or a Michelangelo, I would never be a great scientist, like Newton, I would never be a great musician like Mozart, because I simply did not have that ability.
But then, if Mozart had never been exposed to music he would never be remembered as a great musician, Michelangelo would never have been a great artist had he not been given the capability or the opportunity to be a great artist. So you have to first of all have the inherent ability to specific disciplines and then you have to exposed to that. So it’s a case of inheritance and environment.
It’s no different in Freemasonry. You have to first of all have the ability to be the leader, but you also have to have the exposure and the opportunity to be that. You look at the former Masons who were great Masons – if they were not exposed to Freemasonry, we wouldn’t know them today.
Thank God you were exposed to Freemasonry, Tom!
That’s your opinion!
Not only my opinion, believe me.
