Chopra meant that we must all take responsibility for leading ourselves. We don't have to become president or a corporate CEO, we just have to lead ourselves. In other words, we need to take far more responsibility for ourselves and stop expecting others to do it for us.

    We have the congressional black congress currently angry at the president for the fact that the unemployment rate is much higher for blacks than it is for everyone else. For starters, what are those congress person's doing to fix the problem? Second, why blame the president? He didn't lay off the people disproportionately laying off blacks and older employees.

    When the value of our home or other real estate drastically dropped a few years ago, people were quick to blame the banks, the mortgage companies, the real estate agents and the government. The banks and the government didn't make anyone buy any real estate. Yes, they exaggerated the safety of this investment much like a used-car salesman exaggerating the features of a car, but that isn't force. We made the mistake of buying more home than we needed or could afford because we believed that it was a good investment and would quickly appreciate in value. We forgot that what goes up can also go down.

    In short, we need to stop looking for scapegoats for our problems and start taking a leadership role in our own lives. It is our life after all. It is fine to consult with experts in various fields who can help up with these issues, but the final decision is always ours so we need to stop blaming others. We also desperately need to get away from the idea that the purpose of government is to solve all our problems, fix all our boo boos, correct all our mistakes. Certainly, the government is responsible to help out the citizens, but they can't solve all our problems and they might run the country into bankruptcy trying.

    Chopra gave the example of a woman who got laid off from a high paid IT job. She didn't sulk and complain that the president wouldn't find her a new job, she made one! She starting cooking for parties for friends and neighbors who were too busy to do it themselves and she now runs a catering service with ten employees.

    We all have talents, we are all creative. We may have surpressed those gifts for so long we have forgotten what they are or we may have never discovered them. Now is the time, when we are having problems, to awaken those creative talents and start leading.