evidence: The big idea is that people step forward as leaders because of a learned habit. The ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, wrote, "Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. The habit in the case of excellent leaders is the willingness to say ‘yes’ when the call for leadership occurs. Seeing leadership as a learned habit has important implications for our efforts to develop future generations of leaders. First, it is vitally important to give children opportunities and encouragement to lead at an early age. This may not be easy, since in some cultures the norm is that children are to remain silent and must learn to follow. This risks breeding a generation of silent followers. In other settings, considerations such as gender, race, and caste determine which children get tapped. But if leadership is a habit learned through repeated exercise, then the strength of society depends on conscious development of leadership traits starting early across a broad segment of children.