'Where have all the great leaders gone?' I heard my soul ask me one night. The world has hosted very great lives who once tasted the breath of life, lived selfless lives, caused positive impacts to society and served their hearts out to their homes, nations and the world. As a young chap interested in positive leadership, I often find myself reading accounts on Mahatma Gandhi, Helen Keller, Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa, Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela and others.

I discovered that the world remembers to count these great personalities because they are few and countable. However, people who live self-centered lives are often not remembered, because they join the countless masses of lives that just lived. One thing inspires me about great people; they began when they were young. Some began changing lives and impacted society when they were my age, and your age or even less.

Day in and out, life tests us to stand up tall to positive living. Often we are confronted with situations that pose questions to us. The answers of which demand that we choose one of two options; losing sight of our lives' ultimate and thus settling for immediate pleasures, or holding one's life's ultimate goal in view and thus saying no to temporal pleasures.

Do you live right? Do you pass your tests daily? When in such a situation, I urge you to ask yourself; what would a true World Changer do? Your decisions are very important and bear in mind that indecision is a decision, so decide to lead your life well and right.

The era we find ourselves in is one blessed era. For example, the advance in Technology, I believe, gives us as citizens and especially youth of the planet, the ability to do much within a small time. There are many other tools we could use so let's take advantage of what we have. I am often tempted to think that Isaac Newton, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, and many of the other great people would really have achieved more given the opportunities we have in our time.

Charles Batte, winner of 'Your Big Year 2012' puts it best with this statement on his blog; "This is our moment as young people today. We constitute the most illustrious generation ever to grace the soils of the earth; it is thus our precedence to create the positive social changes that will determine its future. If we fail in this resolve today, we shall not only disappoint the many generations that lived before us or those that will live long after we are gone, but we shall also have failed our own generation!"

History has refused to forget great people who lived right and led their gifts well. History refers to each of these lives as a bestselling book. In our homes, communities, countries and continents, let us look out for empty shelves that previously hosted a bestselling book or life. Let us all resolve in our hearts to fill these shelves. As great leaders pass on, true leaders have to succeed them.
Rhetorically, who will succeed Nelson Mandela? Who will fill up the impact gap his departure has created?

Tshepo Seloane, one great and highly promising youth in South Africa, accounts an interaction he had with Mr. Mandela in the year 2006. When he had the opportunity to meet the great old man, he smartly asked the question. "Tata, how did you do it? How do we as young people become like you?" Mr. Mandela's reply was interesting. He said, "I am an old man. I have played my role on earth. Now, it's up to you, it's in your hands." How true this sounds and how powerful these statements are!

It lies in our hands to do the world the service of having the chance to host another Nelson Mandela or a better version of Mr. Mandela. It lies in our hands to make our generation a better one. It lies in our hands to refill the shelves of true leadership in our nations. It lies in our hands, to change the world in our time. The greatness of the world which we will hand over to our succeeding generation lies in our hands today. Our thoughts, decisions, words and actions, in that sequence, control the organization of this generation's handing over ceremony.

Have you discovered a need in your world? Decide to meet that need and be determined to CHANGE IT! Period! The road to true success wouldn't be all smooth, but your decision for positive change coupled with an insurmountable determination and a strong belief in yourself, is one sure way to the great end. Evil, negative and poor lives may compete with your good intentions. There may be other major oppositions as well. I believe you have already seen this; through the power of vision and imagination.

Become the leader of a solution to a problem you have discovered around you. Discover your gift in life, and lead that gift to the great service of the people within your reach. Start today! Change a Life. Refill the good Shelves of Leadership - Change your World!