When I was little, I would watch movies like Mulan and read books like Percy Jackson and Harry Potter, and wish desperately that I could be just like them—be the one to give the rallying speech before we rushed into battle, the one who took the crazy last-minute risk that baffled the enemy, the one who saved the day. When I saw a leader, all I saw was glory. I saw the medallion with the crest of the emperor given to Mulan, the chance to become a god given to Percy, and the boxes and boxes of candy sent to Harry in the hospital wing after he met Voldemort for the first time, in his first year at Hogwarts. But most importantly, I saw the fame, the applause, the praise. To me, a leader was just a celebrity.

It has taken me a good deal of time to realize what really makes a leader: the selflessness, the courage, and above all, the hope.

The first thing that makes a true leader is the ability to stop thinking about themselves. This is truly a fantastic feat, as we are born thinking about prolonging our own survival. But the moment a person can forget himself and worry only about another human being is the moment he creates in himself the foundation of being a real leader. This is because a real leader leads in order to better others, not to glorify himself. In the words of Arnold H. Glasow, “A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit.”

The next thing that is essential to true leadership is courage, or the art of being terrified, but doing what needs to be done anyway. A leader can’t just give up when the going gets tough. That’s what followers do. He can’t do the same thing as a follower, because then he is just one of them and not, in fact, a leader. A true leader is set above others for a reason. A true leader leads because he can do something that other people can’t. A true leader knows the danger, knows all the risks, and feels the deepest fear, but finds in himself the ability to keep going even when others can’t.

But the cardinal trait that sets a leader apart from a follower, is hope. A leader, in its most basic sense, is a person who acts as the face of hope to the followers; the one who leads, who shows the warriors how to pick up the sword, but more importantly, reminds them why they picked up the sword in the first place. Regardless of a leader’s private fear or uncertainty, a true leader continues whether directly or indirectly to provide people with the strength to go on fighting, the motivation to persevere. Leadership takes a certain degree of concealment: to feel fear and discouragement, yet not to show it.

To really be a leader, one must have a kind of big-picture outlook on life—to know what is most important in the end. A leader must know what they hold true, must be certain of why they fight for their particular cause, of why they lead. This is developed through intelligence—not academic necessarily, but the ability to look at life and analyze it, to evaluate it, and come up with a basic understanding about life and the world, that gives them the strength and clarity to fight for what they know is right. This intelligence also comes into play with the necessity to be able to learn. Leaders must constantly be learning—from people wiser than them, from people not as wise as them, and from themselves. They must be able to learn from mistakes, and from something even harder to learn from: successes. A true leader inspires others because they were first inspired, leads because they were first led.

And in truth, every human being has the potential to be a leader. They just have to see that for themselves, and then they have to forget themselves, learn the fine art of doing fearful things, and never, ever give up hope.