I have been keenly following, reading and understanding management leaders worldwide and as you get deeper and deeper into it, there are some fascinating insights that come forth. I am not writing to deride anyone or undermine their capacity to shake the world. I deeply respect their intellect and their capacity to create paradigms that we always thought didn’t exist earlier. This is just what my mind thinks of the concept of Thought Leader.

As we understand the word in greater detail, we realize that more we get carried away by the concepts thrown to us the more we lose a part of ourselves. And I am trying to understand why? As I started observing myself and completely looking at the world around me objectively, things started becoming clearer and I started getting a sense of a deeper meaning of what this is all about.
There are several questions that came to mind.
1. Are thought leaders living what they preach?
2. How do they develop such amazing qualities that you start feeling that you know almost nothing?
3. Why everything they do is termed Path breaking and Paradigm shift when nothing really shifts in the daily lives of billions of people?
4. How have they been able to influence the very nature of ones being and create paradoxes in an already complex world of human life cycle?

I consider myself an amateur at writing skills and more so in comparison to skillful, eloquent, and articulate artists such as Thought leaders. As I read several books and even more, read their blogs, twitter updates, fan following and several other web and media, new perspectives emerge and a sense of understanding seeps in and even more questions start coming up.
Some questions upfront:
1. Am I looking for an answer of trying to prove theoretically how this phenomenon is created?
2. Is there a deeper sense of purpose behind everything that I do and do I find a heart connect in their sense of purpose?
3. What makes me write this and what do I see ahead in this journey of life?
While I park these questions for a while and look at the phenomenon of Thought leaders there is a sudden sense of realization and understanding that dawned on me as though someone was flowing their thoughts through me.

Firstly, Thought leaders have this amazing capacity to shock you with extremes. They rarely stick to the normal routine of trying to break down one thought process at a time. This feeling makes you vulnerable to all things that are to follow.

Secondly, Thought leaders almost never follow through by connecting the dots. They leave you with a sense of amazement of their concepts and philosophies that showcase such rare abilities that most of us find it difficult to comprehend.

Thirdly, they never stick to commons. This is indeed the most difficult thing. Their connections and showcasing abilities are only for the intellectual kind, cleverly networked and influencers. They too have the pressure of staying on the top as the rest of folks they share with.

Fourth, by far the most intriguing. Very few concepts are self conceived. They are drawn from several existing sources that are already being practiced in several parts of the world. They have this unique ability to create paradigms by connecting the two or more existing phenomenon to create a new paradigm. I must however applaud their ability to be able to do so. How they are able to draw parallels in several situations is amazing and what they draw out as inferences is almost clinical.

Fifth and perhaps the last. Never downplay their ideas. Most thought leaders have this unique ability to share and share their concepts, ideas and paradigms to such an extreme level that one starts feeling if he/she was not part of that phenomenon, they are losing out on something very big.  It is as if a halo is created around this person for inventing this great concept whereas very few thought leaders actually invent something. They just reconstruct a new concept or so called paradigm.

As I delve deeper and deeper into these concepts, I realize that somewhere the Thought leaders who I’ve met almost never even know that they are Thought leaders. They are invisible in their daily acts of shifting something in the hearts everyday - One person at a time. They live by their values with utmost humility and their solutions are always for the daily good of commons. One of the Thought leaders I came across shared something very profound without even realizing that it was a paradigm shift in itself. He simply said “World is becoming increasingly intellectual but we need to remove the intel and work on the actual”. These are words that ring in my soul to see what can we do differently where either you start breaking down the concepts of Thought leaders into actionable items or just follow your own heart and create small changes wherever possible.

What would be worthwhile for the good of commons? To stay connected with the 2% or focus on the 98%? While I am still struggling and staying with this thought in my heart with all sincerity, I feel the disconnection with the notion of Thought leaders and increasingly with so called newer paradigms each day. Maybe I need to develop the ability to hold space for both paradigms to coexist or just move into a new paradigm altogether.  Either way, I know one more Path breaking shift is likely to occur somewhere as someone picks up a new concept and starts working on creating one more new Paradigm.

May all beings be happy.