Someone may sit on the leading position by appointment, elevation or election procedures. While a true leader always is created by demands that are placed on them. The boundary may cross when an elected leader faced no urging demands when he or she was elected but successfully meet exigent situations like the threat of war.

Under many circumstances, leaders represent a title. But when facing exigent situations, like the outbreak of Coronavirus in 2019, these leaders may fail to handle the problem. Consider a well-respected doctor, who assumed the leading position of centers for disease control and prevention, may not be able to suppress the outspread of virus. In this case, the doctor’s professional skill is redoubtful, but he or she just do not have the quality with public affairs. These kind of leaders are not created by the demads placed on them, and they constantly fail to meet that demands.

In other cases, it is the demands that made leaders. Consider the American President Roosevelt who served four terms during World War II. Under the extrem condition of the Great Depression and war, he successfully leaded the country through a series of critical situations. It is not his position but his successful leadership made him a great president. Abraham Lincoln, under harsh circumstances of the American Civil War, made the famous Gettysburg Addres in which the notion of “a government of the people, by the people, for the people” was first stated. These examples substantiate the author’s statement that demands create leaders.

Finally, demands also can create unsuccessful leaders, or expose one unfitting leader to the public. Marcus Antonius, the Roman politician who followed Caesar’s step to be one of the most powerful man in the Roman Republic, when facing the historical turning point of the Roman Republic into an autocratic Empire, failed to finish that duty. The following history tells us that the transform of Roman Republic into an empire is inevitable and represents positive aspects of historical evolution, but this great demands placed on Anthony did not make him a great leader. In light of this history event, we can conclude that a true leader is only the one who successfully accommodated great demands.

To sum up, true leaders are created by the demands that are placed on them, but to achieve that leadership, one must also be competent enough to meet that demands. A successful leader requires both external demands and internal abilities.