Tell me, “Who is your role model?”
Your parents? Your teacher? Your boss?
That handsome guy crying over a girl in that movie?

Fact: Chuck Norris has no role model; he is his own role model.

Okay okay lol. So life isn’t as cut and dry as we were all promised it to be. Somewhere over the past few generations, the idea of a single role model has all but faded. The lucid adolescent dreams of becoming a successful airplane pilot, news anchor, firefighter, baseball player, stock trader, doctor, lawyer, or even a CEO of the next Microsoft have gradually been demoralized by the reality of having nobody to look up to.

How do we get to where we want to be?
Where have all the role models gone?

They haven’t gone anywhere. They’re just difficult to connect with. And even if we do, following their footsteps doesn’t necessarily guarantee repeatable results. I think the majority of our parents learned this the hard way. Either they made it or they didn’t. And even if they made it, they weren’t sure how to dictate how. So to steer us away from the risk of failure, we’ve been presented with a fail-safe method towards mediocrity -

The Cookie-Cutter Lifestyle:
- Study hard, (then what?)
- Get a job, (then what?)
- Buy a house, (then what?)
- “I don’t know, get married.”

What exactly are we being spoon fed to become?
- Search “Social Conditioning” on my Blog

The other night, as I sent out another inspirational article to a good friend and business partner of mine.. he responded boldly with:

“After reading a few of your e-mails, I just realized something. We can refer to a few of these things. You could easily be brainwashed before you know it. My suggestion is, you only need a couple of people, insightful, inspirational people that YOU believe is qualified (and you have to be realistic and critical).”

He was dead on.

We live in an era where we have no clear cut role models.

Instead, we have to piece together bits and pieces of people’s experiences to build the super human we want to become. There are successful multi-million dollar CEO’s dictating that you will gain confidence only after becoming successful. Bullshit. It’s the other way around. Modern age “heroes’ preaching misdirected guidance to the hopeful general public about how they came about to where they are today. Yet, another part of their story may inspire you for the better!

As I’ve advised before: Take everything you learn with a grain of salt and apply your personal interpretation of it. Selective learning is best fit for successful personal development.

So, let me rephrase my question:
“Who do YOU find inspirational?”