Idol.

I remember as a child, all during school and college, I have been told to find an idol, a role model, someone whom I can aspire to be alike. Oprah for success, Mandela for courage of conviction and Dali for artistic dexterity. Those were my idols, my “people I would like to be like”. As I sit here, many years later, I realize something profound. Something I did not even think about before. Why the hell do I want to become like someone, or aspire to be someone who is NOT me?

Why is humanity teaching their children to become or aspire to become like another person. I know this is meant with the best intentions, however like all disasters, it is always with the person/s best intentions. Why am I striving to become someone else, why am I not striving to become the best of who I can be? Why are we not tutoring our children to be their ultimate self, the best of themselves they can be. Yes, use the experience and skills from another, from an idol, but with your own twist. Your own flair. With your own pezzzaz!

A photo I took in remembrance of the ultimate in idols.

I always wished to be as successful as Oprah, to start with little and build an empire. I am not Oprah, I will never be Oprah. Apart from the obvious lack of female reproductive organs, I have not lead her life, or had the same series of events that lead her to where she is. Rather, I will take away from her life, her savvy business skills. Her give-to-get attitude. I do not want to be as creative as Salvador Dali anymore, I would rather be as creative as I can be, in my own right, using Dali’s lessons and skills to make me more creative that he was. As for Mandela, he is not a bad person to aspire to be like. He has changes the South African landscape for the future. I however do not want to have the same courage as he does, the same conviction as he does. Instead I would rather learn and find out what keeps him motivated and how he understands and deals with a problem, and apply that to MY own courage and conviction.

My new goal in life is to become the idol, become the role model, have others take pages out of my book to help their life flourish and blossom. That way all I will be doing is sharing and passing along knowledge gained from others. It’s a good system. It is like a peer-to-peer file-sharing software.

To each their own life, their own experiences. This is what makes every man, woman and child different and unique. Let us as parents, siblings and family nurture this in those around us. Teach them to be the best that they are, not the best of what someone else is.

Until the next time, audience of my reachable network, keep it unique, keep it you, and keep it real!

R