Last night, “America’s Mayor” and former mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani gave a lecture on leadership at Georgia Southern U.

Giuliani’s speech informed students that leadership can be taught, learned and improved.

“People always ask me, ‘Are leaders born or are they made?’ And I say, they are made. But they are born, first,” Giuliani said.

Giuliani believes that there are six principles of leadership that can be applied in any workplace or organization.

The first principle of leadership is having strong beliefs, Giuliani said.

“You have to know your beliefs and your goal in order to achieve and lead,” Giuliani said.

Leaders must set goals in order to grow and thrive, Giuliani said.

“The quintessential leader is the captain of a ship. For the ship to work, the captain has to do one thing: They must set a destination,” Giuliani said.

Two contemporary leaders who set goals based on their beliefs were Ronald Reagan and Martin Luther King, Jr., Giuliani said.

“They had intelligent, strong beliefs based on studying and learning,” Giuliani said. “You’re only going to be able to lead if you have a goal.”

The second principle of leadership is to be an optimist, Giuliani said.

“To be an optimist is to be a problem solver,” Giuliani said, “to absorb the problem and think of a solution.”

Giuliani described the difference between an optimist and a pessimist by re-starting his speech in a pessimistic light.

“Things are bad and they are just gonna get worse. There’s no hope. Follow me,” Giuliani said, “No one followed me, except some kooks in New York.”

When Giuliani worked as the District Attorney of New York City, he often encouraged lawyers who came to him with problems to come back later with a solution rather than dwelling on the problem, Giuliani said.

“If we have any time at all, I ask (the lawyers) to go to their desks, take a deep breath and come back with a suggested solution. It could be a crazy solution, but at least it’s a possible solution,” Giuliani said.

Giuliani was diagnosed with prostate cancer and viewed the opportunity of being diagnosed as a gift, Giuliani said.

“People who deal with a disease with optimism have a greater chance of living than those who do not. A lot of people are given the chance to be aware of the fact that there is something inside them that could kill them, and I was. I considered myself a lucky man,” Giuliani said.

Giuliani believes that optimism is the power behind all wins in life.

“Optimism is enormously powerful,” Giuliani said.

The third principle of leadership is courage, Giuliani said.

“Lots of people don’t think they’re brave because they aren’t super human,” Giuliani said.

The fear of failing will impede one from succeeding, Giuliani said.

“If you are afraid to fail, you will never succeed,” Giuliani said. “Everyone who has ever known success has failed greatly.”

“Courage is being able to take risks, preparing to tackle the problems. And if you fail, pick yourself back up again,” Giuliani said.

The fourth principle of leadership is preparation, Giuliani said.

“Relentless preparation is the key to success,” Giuliani said.

Giuliani spoke of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York City during his time as mayor and how preparation for everything imaginable made him prepared for the unthinkable, Giuliani said.

“When I was first at the site, I said, we don’t have a plan for this but we’ll do the best we can. Afterwards, I realized that by over-preparing for other things like terrorist bomb threats and blackouts, we had indeed prepared,” Giuliani said.

“If you are prepared for everything you can think of, you are prepared for the unthinkable,” Giuliani said.

The fifth principle of leadership is teamwork, Giuliani said.

To develop a strong team, one must find his weaknesses and then find people whose strengths are the same as his weaknesses, Giuliani said.

“We all have weaknesses. After you’ve identified your weaknesses, find someone who balances them,” Giuliani said.

The sixth principle of leadership is communication, Giuliani said.

“It’s not that hard to do, a lot of times it’s just being yourself,” Giuliani said.

Giuliani added that in order to be a leader, one must love people.

“If you don’t love people, do something else. Be a monk,” Giuliani said.

“It’s more important to go to a funeral than a wedding. You have to be there when things go wrong,” Giuliani said.

The strongest social safety net is friendship, Giuliani said.

“They’ll take care of you because they love you. The government doesn’t love you,” Giuliani said.

Giuliani said, “Be there for other people, if you want to be a good leader, you have to be.”