Mel DePaoli featured as a #LadyLeader: We idealize people who are famous, have a fancy title, or have a lot of money

This article was originally featured on redlmb Management Solutions blog as a part of their #LadyLeader Series. You can read the original article here. The #LadyLeader Series is designed to help you get from someplace complex to something more simple. Some of the smartest women and men uncovered tips, tactics, and strategies for how to go from complex to simple. They’ve shared ideas around how to network to maximize your business's reach, outlined ways to move out of your comfort zone and start a new life, or how to succeeded in your next venture. Learn more about #LadyLeader here.

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Have you noticed how leadership is often talked about in one of two ways: a single person who can captivate people in a way that inspires them to follow him or as the over-confident superhero who has a weakness but is able to hide it from the world?

Princess Diana. Indira Gandhi. Madonna. Cleopatra. Marilyn Monroe. Mother Teresa. Oprah Winfrey. Hilary Clinton. Beyoncé Knowles. Catherine Middleton. J.K.Rowling. Marissa Mayer.

As a culture, we tend to idealize people who are famous, have a fancy title, or have a lot of money. It’s like we turn them into God figures where they are different from you and me. They become larger than life and we believe they can do more, achieve more, or that they are better than we are. It’s an “us versus them” mentality that puts “us” down. It’s a lie.

It’s not that we are better than they are, or they are better than us, it’s about setting realistic expectations of people, including yourself! Every successful man, woman, and child has challenges in their life. We all bleed the same red blood.

We are all a leader in our own way. The challenge is in remembering that being a leader doesn’t mean that you have to be perfect. It doesn’t mean that you can’t have feelings. It doesn’t mean you can’t have weaknesses.

“Leaders don’t accept their fate, they want to do more, learn more, and be more.” That is a quote that I have written on a scrap sheet of paper in my office. I have no idea who said it, but it resonates with me. I find that I constantly want to do more, learn more, and to be clichéd about it, be all I can be….but I don’t know what that is until I try.

Being an entrepreneur, being me, I always strive for better, for learning more, and for doing more. It’s my support team that reminds me it’s ok to take a break, to ask for help, and to even be vulnerable. Go concur the world! Learn everything you can, try everything you can, and then remember its ok for you to take a break, to ask for help and to even be vulnerable along the way.