Imagine my surprise, when I discovered that the famous quote by Gandhiji “Be the change you wish to see in the world” is incorrectly attributed to him. What he said was “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change”. I discovered this while reading a blog by author Supriya Kelkar on her research for her book Ahimsa (2017). What Gandhi was saying was that as man changes his nature the attitude of the world around him changes.

When asked to write this article and reflect on what drives a game changer to be one, I came, to what seemed to me, the most logical conclusion, that change is one of those qualities which resides in each of us, like a dormant gene, only getting activated if we truly believe there is something that needs changing.

Take Greta Thunberg for example or Malala Yousufzai. Both were young teenagers when they suddenly took life-changing decisions, the former to go up against her government calling for stronger action on climate change and the latter to push for girls' education in a war-torn country where women were traditionally neither seen nor heard. Their actions were catalysts for others in their age group and both were able to create global movements for their chosen change areas.

One thing is for certain game changers are not born, nor do they come from any class of society and nor have their actions to do with their age. While both Thunberg and Yousufzai were teenagers when they first got recognition for their ideas, there are others throughout history who were much older when they changed the world with their inventions such as Johannes Gutenberg and his invention of the printing press, or Thomas Edison and the electric light, or Andrew Fleming and penicillin, or Alan Turing and the computer. And Gandhiji and Ahimsa.

It is true to say, that in the past, women because of the multiple restrictions placed on them – little to no education and very little access to the world outside their familial surroundings –have scant information about their contributions to the society of their times.

Some unique examples from history that one can take heart from, such as Cleopatra who was considered instrumental in strengthening Egypt’s economy and expanding its territories through her diplomatic acumen; and Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmentalist and political activist and founder of the Green Belt Movement, who dedicated her life to fighting deforestation and soil erosion; or Ada Lovelace born in 1815, a mathematician and writer and who was one of the world’s first computer programmers and one of the earliest female pioneers in technology.

What drives each of these game-changers to do what they do?

Do they need to achieve leadership status to become game changers or is it vice versa?

If I reflect Gandhi’s original saying which implies that if a man changes his nature then the attitude of the world around him will change, I am led to believe that the push to change one’s nature requires belief in some idea that drives us to want and subsequently execute that change irrespective of whether the societal circumstances are favourable or not; irrespective of whether others believe in your ideas or not; irrespective of any challenges that come in your way to stop you achieving what you have set out to do.

The drive for Change begets Leaders and Leaders can drive change constantly throughout their lives.