It is so important to know where we are going.

I was making my way, just the other day, to the hospital where my girlfriend's little brother was getting his periodic cheemotherapy, when I noticed a young mother bringing her 3 year old daughter around the underground train station.

I assumed the mother was bringing her young daughter out for a little excursion, and I thought "Aww.. what a cute scene!" Yet from the looks of it, things weren't going as planned. There were a couple of signs pointing to at least 3 different places at the underpass leading to the train station, and the mother was pacing from sign to sign, staring blankly at each of them, obviously lost.

This went on for at least another 5 minutes. And her 3 year old daughter was there, scratching her head, looking equally lost, and utterly bored at waiting.

And I thought to myself, gosh, I'll bet many of us has been in that situation before.

We've all had the chance to be a leader at least once in our life, whether if its a big-scale business project that we've been placed in charge of, or something as simple as showing someone the way around the shopping mall. So its important to know where we're going, not just for ourselves, but also for the benefit of the people we're leading.

And sometimes, as leaders, we, too, can get lost along the way. Just like the mother at the train station. A couple of times, I noticed that she started to walk off in one direction, hesitate, then turned back to the signs to be REALLY sure, start off in another direction, hesitate again, and go back to the signs again. I'll bet if her 3 year old "follower" could speak, she'd be going "Just pick a direction and get going already!"

My mentor in networking, Eng Hai would tell me time and again "don't analyze till you paralyze". Just learn and do, and if you make a mistake, just learn from it and do it again. Getting into action sure beats staying put at the same spot! And if you're a leader, getting in action is far more motivating for your team, than sitting around and waiting for you to decide on the next step.

When I left the subway, the mother was still pondering which way to go. I hoped she made a decision in the end. Sure, she could have head off the wrong direction, but how difficult is it to learn from it, and turn back anyway? Perhaps her 3 year old daughter might even enjoy herself looking at things while walking back and forth the bustling streets! :)