"Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing." ~Albert Schweitzer

Let's not forget, though:
Nothing so conclusively proves a man's ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself. ~Thomas J. Watson
A leader leads by example not by Force. ~Sun Tzu
Both worthy contenders...

The quotes that say things like "The real leader has no need to lead - he is content to point the way. ~Henry
Miller, The Wisdom of the Heart" - just play into the hands of the J. Zuma's and Ray McCauleys of this world, who have adopted the authoritarian and failed mantra of "Don't do as I do, do as I say!"

Incidentally, there are numerous attributions to Gloria Steinem (of women's lib fame) of the idiom:
"A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle". I heard her on the radio the other day, and she categorically denies it - her take is that it was a woman in Oz who said it.
It was refreshing to hear her honesty on the matter, but at the same time a tad nauseating to hear the mealy-mouthed pandering to her ego by the woman interviewing her (Jenny Crwys-Williams). Seems as though the Americans (as represented by Steinem) really DO believe everything they say... and most people believe them uncritically.

One woman (let's give her the benefit of the doubt - she sounded suspiciously like a 'gender reassigned individual' I know VERY well) phoned in to the show, and managed to completely confuse me by asserting that women in South Africa not only hold down TWO jobs as a rule (I took this to mean holding down a commercial job as well as keeping house - and I agree, women in SA really DO work hard, given the way a lot of men behave - but putting up with such behaviour is actually a choice women make...), but apparently ALSO have ANOTHER job too - they apparently spend as much time making themselves conform to men's expectations of beauty and agreeableness as what they do on a full day-job. An assertion I found VERY hard to believe (have you SEEN some of the women I work with? I don't think they give a flying dingus about what they look like as long as they themselves are happy), but which Steinem didn't dispute and which the journalist (I wonder if she deserves that title) openly supported and agreed with. So when do women sleep? At their day job?

Personally, I found their combined 'take' on South African women insulting. I wonder if they actually realise how paternalistic (as in, old-RSA) they sound...

American society is very different to anything I would want to live in. As I told a senior manager at ABSA yesterday, Singapore is a wonderful place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live in Singapore. America is the same. Australia is fast approaching that status. And the U.K. - well, they're so far into nannyhood that any reasonably competent and sane individual would go mad there - imagine having to apply for a permit to climb up on a ladder higher than 2 metres! These societies all suffer from overregulation and too many petty laws, which are all well and fine in theory (WHY do people, faced with a problem, say things like "There should be a LAW against it!"?), but almost impossible to live with without developing the kind of personality the chief protagonist in George Orwell's 1984 displayed. Give me South Africa ANY day!

With all our problems, we still have enormous possibilities and great freedoms which allow us, at least theoretically, to actualise our dreams without a nanny-state peering over our shoulders and saying "No, you can't do that - you might hurt yourself, little one. We know what is best for you!"

True leaders cannot honestly, morally, or ethically be part of a nanny-state.