Sample Essay
The capability to lead successfully denies one a chance to be socially bound as can be witnessed in Pericles’ case. The aptitude in leadership should be kept at all cost as qualitative leadership can only be realized if there is undivided attention. Pericles became socially detached in a bid to avoid situations that could have affected his politics since too much public exposure leads to compromised perspective of the leader from the citizen’s point of view (Thucydides 97).
Even though Athenians were to lose in the 27-year Peloponnesian war, Pericles inspired his soldiers to go to war which shows that he was very ambitious. Leaders should cultivate the art of ambition because the citizens depend on them for directions. Without ambitions, any state will not go far.
All the things that Pericles did had utmost feelings of humanity and the need to raise these feelings to the grand. For instance, when his first marriage failed to hold, he divorced his wife and married Aspasia of Melitus, a wife he had to defend by his tears when she was accused of running a brothel (Plutarch 209). This shows that had human feelings and was capable of love and concern for others.