Confucius: The Superior Man

Many of Confucius' ideas regarding leadership are extremely profound. What he refers to as "The Superior Man" is, in fact, a sort of paradigm of leadership and greatness. While there are some statements that I did not completely agree with, "Without recognizing the ordinances of Heaven, it is impossible to be a superior man," there were others that I found to be quite inspirational. During the time of Confucius, religion was a much more universally accepted practice. Today, I think that more people would not necessarily agree 100% with the idea that in order to be a great person or leader that you have to believe in God. Maybe I am wrong but that's how it would seem to be. I think that one of his statements that he made should actually be more relevant than it is today: "Riches and honors are what men desire. If they cannot be obtained in the proper way, they should not be held." I like that one. Take blood diamonds, for example. They are certainly not obtained in a proper way and therefore, people should not have them. But we do. In a perfect world, there would be no blood diamonds. One of my favorite quotes that I read was, "When internal examination discovers nothing wrong, what is there to be anxious about, what is there to fear?" I liked this because it tells us that if we look inside ourselves and are content with what we see, then why should we have anything to worry about? Another great one is "The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions." Statements such as these are the ones that are completely applicable today. Leaders should be humble and they should have trust in what they are doing and who they are. Even on a smaller scale, I think that everyone has some kind of leadership within them. If we know in our hearts that something is right, and true, and pure, then it most often is.