“If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six sharpening my axe.”

— Abraham Lincoln

Take a bunch of people out into the wilds of the Gobi desert one of the most starkest environments on the planet and you can test their abilities.What is it that makes a good leader in all walks of life?

“Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you’re ready or not, to put this plan into action.”

— Napolean Hill

Whether you are going into unknown territory, starting a traineeship, embarking on a career,undertaking a new project or even just setting about a journey towards your own goal these statements hold fast and will guarantee that you head to your target.Its what makes a good leader.

At Heathrow Terminal 5 on the way to our adventures My sister Gillian laughed as she watched me carry lots of extra things in my bag.Coloured pens, note pads,pastels and three scottish tartan scarfs and a host of different gifts for our hosts and the children of mongolia.

I also had some Inksters T-shirts in there too given to me by Brian Inkster to take out to the Gobi desert. Why? I hear you say, well first of all on ALL of my adventures in life the one thing I have found is that 1.you always need a pen to draw your plans or write a message 2. There will always been someone worth thanking hence the gifts and 3.Being creative is easy if you have the equipment.

Part of our programme down in the desert was to be split up into teams with each team member being given the opportunity to be team leader. The first day an easy division became apparent when it was noticed that some of the group were down there working on the transit of venus project ( The guys from the Coca Cola Space Sceince Centre) and others were down there just to play. We decided to keep the name the players and so our team was formed. Myself, Hazel,Sarah ,Miles, Johnathon and Sam

Being split into a team meant that we would travel together in our 4×4 and eat every meal together.It also transpired that we would become good friends and plan another adventure for the future (but that will come later in the story).

Anyway to get back to the main theme , preparation how well we prepared both for the trip and for the tasks set was very important.

During the adventure my pens and gifts were used to the max. It so happened that whilst we were on the trip a youngster from Australia celebrated his 17th birthday.Where would you find a birthday card in the desert.No problem! I made one using my card and drew a picture with the pens. We each wanted to give the organisers a gift at the end – no problem ! again we made a card and hey I had three lovely scarfs there too as moments of our trip.

As a team we planned our activities and listened to each of our strengths and weaknesses making use of our strengths when completing tasks.

Prepepartion also meant that we had a party in one of the gers before we left and oh boy you should have seen the amount of snacks brought by all – now that was good planning .

A good leader will think about the big picture and plan, plan, plan its what makes the doing easy.