role model

When I was in a graduate school, I took a seminar by a British professor who specialized in economics. Since I wasn't that interested in the field at that time, I am afraid I cannot recall what I studied there, but what I remember clearly was about the professor's absolutism in his career.

He followed what his hero, a Nobel-prized scholar in economics, had taken, completely in the same manner as his hero had done. He went to the same school as his hero's and earned PhD, then approached to the same publisher where his hero published the first book. In the same manner, he published his first book from the publisher. Of course his research was not a mimic of the hero’s but he wanted to have the same environment in life. He strongly believed that the footsteps left by respectful pioneers would work for us whatever we would like to do.

The consequence was very vivid; he was relatively young to be called professor in the school and the school faculty had expectations to his research career so I think he was able to achieve his success to a certain extent by following his hero's footsteps. He kept sending his drafts for thesis/books to publishers in the same way as his hero had approached and published his books.  As a result of his publishing, he changed his school to teach to a bigger research-centered university at the same age as his hero did for more opportunities.

He believed strongly in his own dogma that successful people has left some useful footsteps for us and those footsteps are a clear passage to be a successful person. By following his hero's footsteps, he wasn't afraid of taking risks to enlarge his success and of being misunderstood by people around him because "the hero proved that the footsteps head in a correct way and everything is going to be all right". His strong belief has been working as a great shield protecting him from negativity.

I called his tendency "a role-model activity". Although his case is a bit extreme, some lessons could be retrieved. His unshakable strength made him much stronger and he retrieved positivity quickly from his golden methodology even when he had problems. In other words, lessons from his dogma are that you can have a role-model to nurture our positivity. It works as a goal when you are in a positive mood (you have a clear passage in front of you) and as a starting point when you are negative (you can return to the original point when you get lost).

To choose the roll-model, at least you have to respect/love the model (family, friends, celebrities and/or even religious deities such as Buddha, Jesus Christ and so forth).  You may think "I want to meet him/her!", “I want to be like them!", and “I want to listen to them!". You easily admire everything coming from the role-model. Well, simply you don’t like to follow somebody you hate. Therefore, the role-model is a very image of your positivity and works as a torch to light your way when you get lost.

Shortcomings can be seen. Depending on, it might mislead you to the dark sides; chaotic addiction. If the roll-model acts in a bad way such as a superstar who's suffering from drug addiction, it may lead you to the same addiction. If the roll-model tends to speak ill of somebody, you may feel those cuss words can be justified even if people around you are not happy to hear that from you. Too much strong love/respect to the roll-model may lose your flexibility and/or capability. We need to develop a literacy to choose the correct one for our brighter future.

To me, sometimes the model would be my parents/sister and or friends and sometimes it would be Japanese deities; when I face a moral problem, what my parents taught me in my childhood will be the model, when I get lost for directions in my career path, deities sometimes will be a teacher (through prayers). With these models, I haven’t had severe problems threatening my life.