Basically there are two types of leaders and influencers in any society, including the one I originate from.

The first type is false and based on money, political power etc. while the other is based on personal,
professional and moral grounds. Of course, I tend to fall in scope within the latter category. In my
opinion leadership and influencing people go hand in hand. Being a leader requires you to be a strong
person surrounded by people of similar skills and talent, not a standalone authority with power and
nothing more. That is the guiding principle in my career. I always tried to bring forward the best in
people, to make them reach their potential, despite their doubts, lack of initiative, laziness, insecurities
etc. Also a leader and an influential person must have vision, even if thing do not seem clear at the time.
Because having a vision is the key element in surpassing the chains of a mediocre reality. The result of
such reasoning is the number of students I had a strong influence on, including some of my closest
associates.

A good example of leadership in my own field are the significant results I have achieved leading teams of
my University on international law competitions. Some of the most significant awards we have received
under my guidance are mentioned in my answer to the question regarding my wish to continue with my
studies in the UK. However, the most important part are not the awards themselves, but the
circumstances under which they were achieved. Maybe the most illustrative example is the participation
of my University on the Willem C. Vis Commercial Arbitration Moot Competition in 2016, one of the
largest, if not the largest, law competitions in the world. Giving to some disappointing results and the
lack of interest among students in the previous years, the Faculty decided not to participate that year.
Being convinced that that was a bad decision and a lost opportunity, I went through a series of meetings
with people from the University and professors, only to be given a green light to organize the team and
participate on the behalf of the University, however without any help from the institution or the
professors themselves. In the following months I managed to assemble a team (mostly through my
personal influence) and finally start preparing for the big event. Later on, I even managed to convince
one well known and respected professor from the University to help us with our preparation for the oral
rounds which were going to be held in Vienna. The epilogue was that our team managed to enter the
finals (for the first time in the history of our University) finally loosing the playoff round to Columbia
University in a tight and equal match, thus receiving an honorable mention for best team orals award.
However, the biggest award was not the result itself, but the personal journey I went through that had a
huge impact on my professional and personal life.