Above all else, you must have role models.
A conversation I had with a good friend two weeks ago made me reflect on the importance of role models in today’s times.
When information is thrown at you from all areas of life, not knowing what’s right or wrong, having strong beliefs and a moral character is what will help you filter out what’s necessary.
Your role models are the anchor for living a good life. As people who walked the path you’re taking, learning their stories will do wonders for your life.
It helps track your progress and makes you feel like you’re not alone.
And don’t just have one role model. Have many! From a variety of fields!
Have role models among close friends and family, as well as people you’ve never met.
Have role models from both modern times and ancient times.
Have role models in the arts and the sciences!
From presidents to painters, from business leaders to school teachers.
And don’t feel like you must accept everyone for who they were or what they did. Nobody’s perfect. But, as someone with the agency to select their heroes, you simply emulate their good traits and discard their bad characteristics.
This is your life, yes, but it’s a life pieced together from everyone you’ve met or heard about. That’s what makes you unique.
At a certain point, once you have selected enough heroes and role models, you’ll notice a pattern. You’ll connect the dots and wonder why you picked these people. It’s not a coincidence. There’s a reason why you like what you like.
My role models are numerous, but the most notable ones include Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Saint Augustine, Benjamin Franklin, Jacqueline Novogratz, Walt Disney, and Steve Jobs.
Why them?
Well, it took me years to realize this, but there was one commonality among them: they reinvented themselves.
I was fascinated by their lives and how they picked themselves up after devastating failures, emerging as new people with new beginnings.
When Malcolm X and Nelson Mandela went to prison, they reinvented themselves and became leaders of their communities.
When Roosevelt and Churchill faced personal tragedies, they reinvented themselves and returned to politics with renewed purpose.
When Disney and Jobs lost possession of their creations, they reinvented themselves and started new creations.
All of their stories share a common theme of reinvention, and they lived fuller lives because they embraced it instead of ignoring it.
And as it turns out, I, too, went through a reinvention of my own. I spent my college years working on entrepreneurial projects, thinking I wanted to become an entrepreneur. But over time, I became more fascinated not by the ideas themselves, but the people behind them.
In other words, it was stories I was attracted to, not entrepreneurship.
When I experienced unemployment for 10 months after graduation, I decided to let go of my identity as an entrepreneur and embrace my identity as a storyteller.
And writing, as a result, became my preferred medium to tell stories.
I never imagined myself as a writer, yet here I am, working on writing projects because that’s what I enjoy.
But what will I do in 5 years? 10 years? Who knows
However, I have role models who taught me to embrace such changes, take opportunities outside of my field, and continue to reinvent myself.
That’s what role models are for.
That’s why we called them heroes when we were kids.
They’re simply people whom we wanted to be like when we were growing up.
Find your role models, alive or dead, and let them guide you on your path to a good life.