You may be the most talented, the most skilled, and the most educated person in the world, but the pinnacle of what you can ultimately accomplish is limited by what you can personally do and achieve every day.

The skill that will greatly multiply your success, and the success of those around you, is… Leadership!

The amount of success you’ll experience is largely determined by your ability to lead and influence others. Since leadership is such an imperative Unemployed Millionaire skill, I’m dedicating nine Unemployed Millionaire Blog posts to a series on leadership starting now….

The Truth About Magical “Supreme” Leaders

I was only 18 years old when I first entered the world of entrepreneurial ventures. It was a crazy time in my life… I spent day after day looking for a magical “supreme” leader who could mentor me and build me into the great success I was destined to become.

Just like a lot of first time entrepreneurs,  I believed that in order to be a good leader, I had to be a good follower, first. The issue with that statement is the risk of staying in the follower role for so long that you develop the mentality of a follower.

Followers typically end up free-falling into a comfort zone of mediocrity. Some never get out of that comfort zone and never develop their own leadership abilities.

The take-a-ways here are to beware of falling into the ‘follower’ trap and never stop developing the leader within you!

A Perception Principle for Leaders

People will generally not follow a leader who has a lower level of leadership than their own. Meaning someone who is a 7 on the leadership scale of 1 to 10 typically wouldn’t follow someone who’s a 7 or below. 7 Score Leaders generally only follow leaders who they perceive as having a score of 8,9, or 10 on the leadership scale.

The key word here is perceive!

People follow leaders who they “perceive” as a greater leader than themselves.

The true essence of leadership is simply perception. It took me a couple of years of experience to really grasp that concept…. Luckily I learned it really early on, thanks to my first mentor, Wayne.

The person who can outwardly project tons of confidence in themselves and their ability to lead others is certain to become the leader simply because others will naturally perceive them as the leader.

Understanding How Others Perceive Leadership

How can someone project confidence as a leader that everyone around them can feel?

That’s a question I frequently pondered in my early days as an entrepreneur. I spent a great deal of time watching confident leaders and used what I learned from them to build my own confidence. I read entire books dedicated to the topics of body language and perception…

Eventually, I noticed a pattern of the most powerful and easiest ways to project confidence through five different factors:

• How you greet someone
• Your voice
• Your posture
• Your facial expressions
• Your wrapping

I’ll explain how to master those five factors in the next leadership series post so be sure you read The Unemployed Millionaire Blog tomorrow!

In the meantime, take a moment to reflect on the leader within you… What are you doing today to make that leader stronger? Feel free to be a discussion leader and share your answer in the comments section below.

I look forward to hearing from you!

P.S. For my entire take on The Secret Character Trait of the World’s Most Powerful People, read Chapter 7 of The Unemployed Millionaire. Get your copy and over $2,000 in bonus success education materials here: http://www.MattMorris.com/book.

P.P.S. Becoming a leader has major perks. Check out The Unemployed Millionaire Show: The Benefits of Serving Others to see what I mean!