I attended the Leadership seminar on March 9th in Seattle. The event started with Ata Karim Sahib asking us to define what we thought leadership was. Irfan Bhai mentioned that it had to be about the group, not just an individual. Karim Sahib kept emphasizing that throughout the whole seminar. That is the most important thing I learned that day; it has to be about the people around you, not you. I always thought leadership had to do with telling others what to do and doing a successful activity or challenge while you are the main person in charge...

Karim Sahib gave us a task to do. There were 11 of us and he set 11 balls in front of us. He gave us one task: for everybody to touch the balls. He gave us no other rules, restrictions, or time limit. The 11 of us decided to discuss several strategies. Everybody had different ideas and gave their own proposals. We spent a great deal of time discussing on how to go about completing the task. I think it was close to 20 minutes that we spent just talking about it. We eventually decided to touch the balls by having one person at one time stand up and go to the center to touch the balls. The task took us 45 seconds. Then Karim Sahib added a stipulation on us. He said we have to cut that time in half. Everybody thought it was very difficult to do. Also, we had only 10 people left. We decided to scoot in closer to discuss a new plan. It was pretty much the same idea, except we wouldn't have to get out of our chairs. We would still touch the balls one by one. I liked this concept better where we had to cut the time in half. That is because it required us to incorporate several ideas to execute one plan.

We finished this task in 10 seconds. Karim Sahib then said we have to do it in 5 seconds. It felt impossible at first, but I felt confident in my team member's hands. I knew that we all worked together and understood each other's strengths, and weaknesses; that we would be able to achieve this task. We then stood up in a line and had 2 people who carried the balls to touch each of us with it. We successfully completed the task in 5 seconds. I felt pretty proud of us then. We then had a reflection period. We identified obstacles and concerns. Irfan Bhai mostly focused on efficiency, not speed. I thought that was a good skill to have. I pointed out that I felt that we had to do it as fast as possible the first time to set a personal best. Another concern was that the younger members in the activity weren't having their voices heard. There were feelings that the older members were having dominant roles in the activity. Overall, I really enjoyed the ball activity and learned a lot from it.

We then broke up into groups of 3 and identified one particular skill or talent that each of us possesses. I identified mine as being kind hearted towards the people that I care for and wanting to help them. My group members had very similar talents which they had written down. I had never thought about this before and was glad that we had to do this so I would have a better understanding of myself.

Karim Sahib closed the seminar by saying that we shouldn't be afraid to fail. We need to have the courage to fail. I learned many valuable things from the seminar. The most important thing I learned is that leadership is about the group, not just an individual.

After the leadership seminar, we had lunch. We then had 2 members from the FBI explain to us what they do. I learned many things about the FBI that I didn't know before like the recruitment process and all the different positions available. I thought this could potentially be a career that I would want to pursue in my future. After the FBI, we had a lawyer come in to tell us what he did. He explained to us that he helps immigrants and want them to have more rights. I agreed with everything that he had to say and was happy to know that we had people like him trying to make our country better.

After that, we had a person to tell us about a program called "Teach For America." This program was designed to give people who recently graduated from college to teach at schools where there are underprivileged children attending. This is to help the kids catch up and be on par with other kids who have better opportunities than them. I thought it was a great program and think it could be very beneficial to many children.

I greatly enjoyed attending the Leadership Seminar because it made me think about things which I normally didn't think about. I was glad that we had many guest speakers who were passionate about what they do and genuinely wanted to help others. I felt that I wanted to be a skillful leader in my life whether it is at school or at work. More importantly, I learned to do things for other people, not just myself.

For more information about services offered by the Sanat-O-Tijarat (Career Development) Department, please go to http://www.mkausa.org/Sanat-o-Tijarat.