The Leader Makes the Difference
Two stories from different worlds - a startup ecosystem and a Christmas carol competition - that reveal the same truth about leadership.
What separates a stagnant community from a thriving one? What turns twenty years of mediocrity into a trophy-winning performance?
I used to think the answer was resources. Or timing. Or luck. But two recent experiences changed my mind completely. The answer, it turns out, is simpler and more profound: a leader who decides to show up.
Vijay and the Incubation Forum
Vijay was my colleague at work. A sharp engineer with restless energy. About 2-3 years ago, he left Chennai to start his own venture. But here’s what made his move unusual - he didn’t go to Bangalore or Hyderabad. He went back to Karaikudi, a tier-two city in Tamil Nadu, to his alma mater.
When I heard this, I wondered if he was making a mistake. The startup ecosystem there was practically non-existent. The talent pool was limited. The networks that make startups thrive simply weren’t there.
But Vijay saw something different. He saw potential waiting to be unlocked.
A few weeks ago, I attended the inauguration of the Alagappa Incubation Forum - something Vijay initiated in association with the StartupTN initiative. I was curious to see what this initiative was about. Over 150 people showed up. Entrepreneurs from around the Karaikudi region. Students hungry for mentorship. One founder had returned from the US to develop a medical device - choosing Karaikudi over Silicon Valley, just like Vijay had.
Person after person came up to speak. They all said variations of the same thing: “We’ve been waiting for something like this for years. A place to connect. To learn about government schemes. To find collaborators.”
Here’s what struck me most. Vijay is building his own startup. Anyone who has done this knows it consumes every waking hour. Yet he carved out time to create this forum. Not for personal gain - there’s no revenue model here, no equity stake. Just a genuine desire to give back to the place that shaped him.
I’ve seen plenty of people organize meetups and initiatives. Most of them are networking plays dressed up as community service. Vijay’s intention felt different. He built something for students and entrepreneurs who would never be able to return the favor. That’s rare.
Britto and the Christmas Carols
The second story comes from much closer to home - literally.
Our locality is organized around the church at its center. Streets radiate outward, each forming a Small Christian Community, or SCC. There are about 25 such SCCs, each with 15-20 families. Every Christmas, for the past 20 years or so, the church organizes carol competitions. People from the church visit each SCC on an allotted day. The streets are decorated with Christmas trees and cribs. Each community gets five minutes to perform something - a skit, a dance, whatever they choose.
There’s a trophy for the best SCC. And then there’s our SCC.
We are the back benchers. In twenty years, we haven’t won a single prize. Not even a consolation prize. Most families here are retired teachers. We have young people with good ideas. But somehow, year after year, our carols end up being just okay.
Enter Britto.
Britto is an army officer who just retired this year. He lives nearby, is about a decade older than me, carries himself with quiet discipline, and decided this year would be different.
He pulled everyone together. Planning sessions. Brainstorming meetings. Daily rehearsals in the weeks leading up to the event. He assigned roles, pushed people to commit, and orchestrated every detail.
On carol day, it all came together. Kids performed Silambam. There were dance numbers. The skit was polished. At least one person from every family participated - writing scripts, acting, bringing props to make scenes feel real. The execution was, and I don’t use this word lightly, like a Shankar movie.
We won the trophy.
Twenty years of nothing. Then one leader, and everything changed.
Same Surroundings, Different Outcomes
Here’s what I keep thinking about: the circumstances in both situations were largely the same as before.
The Karaikudi region had talented people and hungry students for years. The potential was always there. It just needed someone to connect the dots.
Our SCC had families with ideas and enthusiasm for two decades. The raw material for a good performance was never missing. It just needed someone to organize it.
The environment didn’t change. The leader did.
This is what I keep coming back to. It’s easy to point to external factors - lack of time, lack of resources, lack of support. And sometimes those constraints are real. But more often than I’d like to admit, the missing ingredient is someone willing to step up and do the unglamorous work of pulling people together.
Vijay didn’t wait for the perfect conditions to build an ecosystem. He started with what he had.
Britto didn’t complain about our community’s track record. He just started scheduling rehearsals.
The Invisible Work of Leaders
What I find most interesting about both Vijay and Britto is that their leadership looked ordinary from the outside. No dramatic speeches. No charisma-driven motivation. Just consistent, patient coordination.
Vijay convinced his college administration to set up something sustainable - an incubation forum with a co-working space at an affordable price and a salaried manager to run it. He didn’t just organize an event. He put a system in place. The entrepreneurs showed up because they were eager for a platform - all it took was a post on StartupTN’s social handles.
Britto spent weeks knocking on doors, managing egos, making sure props were ready.
This is the work that doesn’t make it into leadership books. The conversations with decision-makers. The persistence to see it through. The willingness to handle logistics that nobody else wants to touch.
And yet, this is precisely what separates intention from impact. Lots of people in our SCC had ideas over the years. Lots of people in Karaikudi probably thought about starting a forum. The difference is that Vijay and Britto actually did it.
What It Means
I don’t think either of them set out to “be a leader” in some abstract sense. They just saw something that could be better and decided to make it happen.
Maybe that’s the whole point. Leadership isn’t a title or a personality type. It’s a choice you make when you see a gap and decide to fill it.
The situations around us are rarely as fixed as they appear. What looks like “the way things have always been” is often just waiting for someone to imagine it differently.
Vijay imagined a thriving startup ecosystem in a tier-two city. Britto imagined our SCC winning a trophy. And then they did the work to make those visions real.
The question I’m left with is simple: what gaps do I see that I’ve been waiting for someone else to fill?
Co-written with AI. Credit the prose, blame the opinions.