Devoted servants gathered around, the world at your fingertips, and spectacular opportunities piled up high: these are the fantasy-filled lies that many imagine of a leader, but here is the truth. The truth consists of taunts, offensive words, and insults being thrown from every which way ,yet still being expected to meet them all with an iron wall. The truth is an oppressing boulder of burdens that pushes an entire country’s problems upon one set of shoulders. The truth is having the possibility of an entire group’s collapse engraved in your legacy. Being a leader is not rainbows and riches; it is hardships and struggles that never end. Rather than the effortless triumphs or the easy wins, those flaws, those struggles which must be overcome time and time again, are what earn leaders the respect they deserve.
     

Gunter d’Alquen. Max Amann. Wilber Bohle. These are a few of the many generals who established concentration camps, killed the innocent, and burned the bodies of the Jewish. Yet no one remembers. No one remembers how these were the traitorous people who also grinned at the screams of children. No one remembers how these were the soldiers who also fired the guns that killed hundreds. No one remembers that they were there too. But everyone has the evil picture of Hitler set deep within his/her mind. Why? Because Hitler was the one with the ideas, he was the one with the face of World War 2, and he was the one they called their leader. Leaders are the ones left to bear the humiliation and blame of a downfall, abandoned at that last crucial moment by their followers. Even the biggest deceiver of all time, Napoleon Bonaparte, was the only one to take the blame when his entire army was defeated in Russia. He had the hearts and support of millions in his dark rise to power.  Many people seem to have had their memories erased of the immoral followers who caused turmoil in Napoleon's time, but no one forgets the immoral leader. And it is not only the wicked and foul who deal with the ruins of their dignity when it comes to being a commander. Being accountable for the failure of an entire group happens every single day in business. One of the biggest business failures known today is the company Enron Corporation. Before its devastating loss of power, Enron was the sixth largest energy company in the world and marketed to billions every day.The CEOs accomplished what most would do in a lifetime in just a few years. Starting the company in the year 2000, the CEOs had it rolling in cash by 2002. Yet, suddenly an investigation into the company showed hundreds of millions of dollars were overstated in Enron, meaning the company had let its hubris be its defeat. Enron made deals all across the world, yet many times the company could not keep them going. For many years, Enron swept its failures into little hiding places, but finally the truth came out and the company came crashing down. And who was punished? Not the workers, not the people who actually signed these business contracts, not those who kept their failure a secret, but the leaders. Kenneth Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, and Arthur Anderson are just a few of the CEOs who were sent to prison for the acts of a gigantic company. The society turned a blind eye towards what the entire organization had done and let the mistakes of all the workers be pinned on the heads of a few. This is the truth of being a leader.
     

Not only do leaders deal with downfalls but they also endure society’s acknowledgment for their mistakes rather than the things the leaders do right . When I decided to start a club this year, it took months of planning. I met with sponsors, directors, and state representatives over the summer to plan every detail. The other officers and I had a hundred posters printed out and hung them up over both campuses at our school. We organized fundraisers and projects, letting our club succeed. Yet, just a week ago, we were not able to plan our holiday fundraiser in time and it was a flop. All week, people in our club and others commented, “You should have done it faster. It could have been a success.” And I am ready to admit my mistakes: it could have been a success. But they do not know all the effort that goes into one event. All the stress, problems, and struggles that were thrown at our club were all met with a brick wall, but sometimes walls crack a bit. It does not mean that the wall is no longer a wall; it just needs to be repaired a little. A leader has to deal with all this and more, yet people overlook all the hardships that go into a leader becoming a leader. It's as if society wants to capture only the cheerful side and push the struggles to the side as if the endeavors never happened. But the leader remembers every effort and every hardship they went through. Look at Obama. Many citizens talk about how we are still in debt, how ISIS is still not defeated, or how ObamaCare has ruined it all, but what about the rest? What about the millions of jobs he has created? What about how he brought down Osama Bin Laden? What about how he helped make a treaty with Iran? What about all that? No one wants to focus on the hardships that were overcome for each accomplishment. They either blame the leader for their own mistakes or overlook what he's gone through. This is the truth of being a leader.
     

Additionally, many people might say, we should focus on the best qualities of a person, not the worst, so the leader’s struggles should be kept a secret. And to that I say, why? Why overshadow what makes us human? Why overlook the things that are really hard to overcome? Leaders are those astounding people, who take their worst qualities and transform them into something incredible. That is what makes being a leader so great: they overcome every struggle, obstacle and tackle thrown at them.

Now think. Impending stress for the success of a country, opinions being hurled from every direction, and the looming possibility of a downfall: this is the gory truth of being a leader, not the lies many are spoon fed. The lie that being a leader is sitting on mountains of glories. The lie that being a leader is just ignorance that demands respect. The lie that being a leader is as easy as snapping fingers. The lies may be pretty, but no one said the truth was easy.