Famous Leaders Who Studied Abroad and Why You Should Too

Getting higher education in another country is universally considered to be a good thing. There’s just simply nothing bad about studying abroad. You immerse into another culture, learn another language, and get an invaluable experience of being responsible for yourself. No wonder that there were so many people that studied abroad, managed to earn those skills, and they became some of the world’s most famous leaders. And all of them underline the importance of the experience of studying in another country.

Introducing Famous Foreign Students

Lots of political and social leaders were, in fact, just foreign students at some point in their life, just before going into politics and becoming the leaders in their own right in their home country. For example, Bill Clinton studied in the UK, Barack Obama was a student in Indonesia at one point in his life, while Shinzo Abe (the prime minister of Japan) studied in the U.S. All the aforementioned leaders are very well-known and respected in many ways by many people.

But how did their foreign education influence their career and leadership? Well, as it was mentioned earlier, studying abroad provides you with lots of valuable experiences. Here are just a few of them.

• Independence

Being independent of your parents or caregivers and responsible for yourself teaches a lot. By being the only person to think for yourself and help yourself, you master taking responsibility for your words, actions, and, as a bonus, even other people. The lack of dependency on somebody else makes you more tolerant of the mistakes of others and less ignorant about yours. Being solely responsible for yourself teaches you to use your resources reasonably. These and many other skills that you can learn only by living on your own at a young age will be very helpful to you later in life, regardless of whether you plan to lead or be led.

• Accepting challenges

We constantly face challenges in our lives, yet some of us can’t always accept them. When you get into a foreign environment with people speaking another language all the time, all the academic requirements that must be met regardless of how well you speak the language, and the inability to call your parents for help, you learn how to take all possible risks in your life and overcome all challenges once and for all. No matter what kind of solution you manage to find in the end, to have a sleepless night or address essay writing help, you accept the challenge in the first place, and you make your very own decision. Nothing works against this argument as risk-taking skills are highly valued almost everywhere.

• Openness to the world

As you live in another country and face its foreign, unfamiliar, and, perhaps, somewhat uncomfortable reality, you learn to adapt to it and see the world through the eyes of its people. This, in turn, helps you greatly in accepting different people with different cultural backgrounds, which is a must for any leader. On top of that, you learn to think out of the box, to think like a different kind of person, which makes you a valuable leader.

• Systems thinking and analysis

While you study abroad, you’ll definitely have the need to work abroad as well. Whether you just need some spare cash made over the weekend or just got interested in a career opportunity that fell right on you, you’ll likely work abroad during your studies. And all that work will bring a lot more to the table than just a few more bucks (or euros, you’d say) or some working experience. As you’ll work in a different environment, you’ll have to look at it systematically and learn it as a whole. In the future, this skill will be very helpful as you study the labor or stock market in your home country. Some things will be harder, some easier, but all of them will certainly seem familiar in some way.

 While You’re Still Young

Studying and living abroad is definitely an invaluable experience that can also be very fun. And it’s important to have some fun while you’re still young, and the best way to do it is to do it far away from home while nobody watches, and nobody can judge or influence you. As you study in another country, you become the better you as you manage to study yourself, your habits, tendencies, and abilities. And as you turn your abilities into skills, you develop your potential of becoming a real leader.