Role model or Inspiration

Inspiration is all around us. All we need is an eye, sharp enough to see and learn. Human evolution is a based on the refinement, we gain by seeing other people and modelling their behaviour.

One of the questions, often asked to school children is, “Who is your role model?” And children have different answers ranging from Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa to Abdul Kalam or some other famous personality.

However, when we say someone is a role model, it means we wish to be like them in all aspects. But the truth is there would be some aspects of a role model, which we may not like. Our mind may not be in sync with few aspects of a particular person. This can lead to a misalignment. And even if we try to be like them, we will either end up being mocked for imitating them and lacking originality.

 

Quite rarely, the role model children mention could be their father, mother, or someone they have to closely interact with. To me, it makes more  sense. Because all the leaders we talked about earlier have set very high benchmarks which is difficult to match. Moreover, we don’t know much about their personal life. Whereas there could be people in our life, whom we have seen with our own eyes, who have toiled hard, gone through a lot of struggles, and have come to a stage where they are today. This sort of inspiration feels more real and authentic. It feels that it is something more easily achievable.

 

For example, I have often looked up to my grandfather, Late. Shri. V.V.Dhanushkodi, as a role model. I have not seen him, personally, because he had passed away long before I was born. Still, I have developed a great admiration for him, by hearing about him through my father and a few more elderly people. He was a social oriented person, who rose to fame due to his intelligence and philanthropy. He was one of the few educated people in those days, who also was inclined to do good for the society. He migrated from his hometown Virudhunagar, to Tuticorin and started his own business and became popular amongst the people here. He has personally helped and supported several people, that his photo still hangs in their shops and houses, where I have visited. When I enquire about why they have his photo, they explain the significant role he has played in the betterment of their lives. These are some goosebump moments for me which makes me realize, how great he was. This makes me want to follow his footsteps. However, he died at an early age of 55, due to heart attack. Pondering over why, I came to know he had excessive smoking habit, which affected his health. And probably being a socially influential person, he must have had a big load of stress too. While, I may be inspired by his business acumen and service mindedness, his attitude towards health is certainly something, I don’t want to copy. It is only something, I can learn from.

 

So, there are some limitations in accepting someone as a complete role model. Ironically, there are some bad qualities in good people and some good qualities in bad people too. Rather, it would be wise to look at them as an inspiration for a few specific qualities or behaviour, which we want to learn and adopt in our life. Maybe we can model one good quality from each person. For example, we can model the way we work or do business like someone, we can model the fitness regime of someone, we can model the social lifestyle of another and so on.

 

I always feel that there is some good aspect we can learn from everyone, irrespective of their age, social status, or their achievement in life. If we move ahead with this mindset, we will probably find inspiration from unexpected sources. It could be a small kid, a street vendor, a farm worker or some normal person, who is doing service with all that he could, sacrificing his own needs. There are many such noble hearts and brilliant minds, who remain the unsung heroes in the world. There is a lot we can learn from people who have failed too, as much we can learn from people who have succeeded.

 

So, we must develop a mindset of searching for the good in everyone and try to imbibe them, for our own betterment. When I interact with anyone new, one question that always runs in the back of my mind is "What good value, attitude or behaviour, can I learn from this person?” The answer could be a single word like patience, honesty, kindness, selfless service and so on.

 

   D. Senthil Kannan,

   CEO, PALMS Training & Consulting (P) Ltd., Tuticorin.

   Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

   Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com