Leaders are created by the demands that are placed on them.

History is filled with so many examples where adversity of situations has caused the masses to select a leader to address their problems. So it would be right to say that demands are the cause for the rise of an individual as a leader. If he fulfills all the demands, his name gets written in golden letters as one of the most influential leaders. If he fails to achieve, his name will get lost. Below are few examples which can be served as evidence.

Mahatma Gandhi was one of the most influential leaders of his time. In early 1900, when India was suffering from British rule, he took the torch in his hand to light up the entire nation with the slogan of nonviolence: ‘ahimsa’. Indian people were filled with outrage because of the cruel policies imposed on them by British government. The brutal treatment of the masses added the fuel to the fire at that time. When the entire nation was furious, with violence happening in every nook and corner, Gandhi rose up as the leader. He used nonviolence as the mantra to seek independence. At the end, he succeeded in making the country free and he is still considered as an epitome of nonviolence all around the world.

Another example from the field of business is Steve Jobs. Jobs, who once was ousted from Apple, is now considered as the savior of Apple. After Jobs got expelled from Apple, the company went to losses one after the other. They failed to meet the users’ expectations and to come up with new and innovative ideas. The board committee of Apple changed the CEO many times to seek desired results. But they did not get a fruitful outcome. It was then felt that only Jobs can save the sinking ship. When approached, he rose up to the challenge and history is evidence that he not only saved Apple but also made it one of the most successful firm by inventing products like ipod, ipad, istore, and iphone.

Although demand causes the selection of an individual as leader, it is not necessary that the person selected will meet the requirements. Sachin Tendulkar, who is considered as the god of Indian cricket is an all-time best batsman. With his name at the top of chart on almost every batting record like most centuries, most half centuries, most run scored, one cannot consider him as a mere usual talent. He was approached by BCCI to accept Indian team captaincy and fulfill the much needed demand of winning world cup for the nation. Although he had tremendous batting talent, the same talent did not reflect on his captaincy. He was not successful as a captain and later on decided to step down from the captaincy of Indian cricket team.

Clubbing up all the point I can say that demand is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the making of a leader. It is dependent on the qualities of the individual whether he will be able to meet all the requirements being demanded by the challenge.