A good teacher knows that he or she at some point has to stand back. An instructor who stays with you overlong steals a crucial part of a necessary education from you. With someone always overseeing you actions there are important things you never learn: independence, mental courage, an inner vigor that can only come from taking your own risks. Every individual who has come to a point of appropriate self confidence has had to learn from their own experience. It is a hallmark of an exceptional educator to know when to let go. Likewise a parent must eventually let go to allow growth.
Whenever you see a powerful leader, look at what his leadership is doing to those who are followers, are they firebrands or are they weak and passive sycophants? The demagogue may think he is “strengthening” his followers, the faithful if you would have it so, but this is exactly the blind spot of an extrovert. Our inspiration can be drawn from faith, literature and other sources of lessons but ultimately the core of our inspiration must come from within us, not from our blind submission to external control.
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