If Imitation is Despised, How Is It That Role Modeling Is Prized?

 “Imitation is degradation of self,” says King James. How very true! In the Oxford dictionary, the synonyms of ‘imitation’ are sham, fake, counterfeit, bogus, spurious, phoney. It is, in fact, an offence and a lot of court cases deal with violations of copyrights, trademarks and plagiarism as well as stealing of secret data. There is no wonder then that almost all agree with King James in their hearts. But still, there is all-round conscious or subconscious imitation going on, though no one will admit it. 

Against this background, one wonders how the imitation of others’ behaviours and qualities, that goes under the 'exalted' idea of ‘Role Modeling’, is highly commended and widely practised. 

The term ‘Role Modeling’ was introduced by sociologist Robert Merton and further developed by Albert Bandura. Bandura found that "individuals tend to be active observers of their environments. During these observations, people make note of the behaviours exhibited by others and imitate them.”

The Psychology Dictionary defines role model as “person or group who knowingly or unknowingly inspires others to imitate their persona”. The Oxford Advanced Dictionary defines role model as “a person that people admire and try to copy”.

So, here it is – the plain and real truth that role modeling is essentially “copying and imitating”. 

In spite of this reality, many management experts and authors have been  attempting  to lay down guidelines, rules and pathways to ‘wisely’ choose role models, who have aspirations and life patterns similar to oneself and to follow them. The idea is flourishing and, as happens in academics, more ‘guides’ are sold than textbooks.

The secret of the cult of role models spreading faster and faster is the quest for ‘quick success’. The yearning for success is always burning and is unending. Success, at any level, is a highly complex matter influenced by hundreds of personal and external factors, including an element of chance or luck. On such a slippery, risky and steep road to the peak, there is an inescapable, acute attraction for a short-cut. And, that’s what following the role model route offers, instead of cutting your own path.

The basic concept is age-old. This Sanskrit verse explains it clearly - “Mahajano yen jatah sapanthah” - which means one should accept the progressive path the great people advocate.”

No matter what the successful gurus or heroes say, the main influencing factors of success are one’s aptitude, goals, mission in life and courage of conviction. There are many who are confused and fickle. They fall for the fallacious option of the shortcut because they lack the most critical and hardest-to-acquire success factor: that is an unwavering mindset or courage of CONVICTION. It entails –

Courage, Optimism, Nobility, Vision, Ingenuity, Character, Talent,

Inspiration, Options and No-nonsense attitude.

There is a claim made that by following a role model one avoids wasting time and resources in reinventing the wheel. There are many fallacies in this argument. A few critical ones are explained below.

________________________________________________________________________________________

                                                                                        

Bollywood’s  Revealing Lesson 

Here is the most revealing lesson from a small boy for thousands of highly qualified and well-placed executives and other professionals busy finding and following role models for better performance and higher success. It’s from  Shailedtra's song (nanhe munhe bachhe---Reference: http:/shailendrasongs.wordpress.com)   in the film “Boot Polish." An elderly man asks a small boy busy polishing boots by the roadside: what do you have in the grasp of your palm? The boy answers confidently: “I keep my destiny firmly in the grasp of my palm”. The elderly man further asks can you tell me some signs of the emerging new world? The indomitably optimistic boy spontaneously avows that there will be a crown on every head and hunger will vanish!!

 What inspiring and confident thoughts and dreams nursed in the tiny mind. As against this, in many reality shows, even celebrities flaunt the photos of role models in their palms and some of them go so far as tattooing their names or caricatures on their arms and backs.

The moral is clear: be your own role model and work to realise your dreams in your own way.

________________________________________________________________________________________

• The foremost fallacy is that you can forget your own self-image, self-respect, personality and become somebody else’s alter-ego. Such a total changeover, through imitation, amounts to suicide according to Ralph Waldo Emerson. Note his words: "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction……….that imitation is suicide”.

• There is always the risk of making the wrong choice of a role model. As often happens in love affairs, after the initial fascination wears out over a period, one discovers that it was only infatuation and not genuine, deep love. The result is frustration.

• Many followers of role models are lured by the dazzling quick success of the role model and follow him. But, what really matters is how s/he achieved that success. Often there is an unknown godfather or a catalyst, who is the hidden real force. One cannot get the expected boost by ‘emulating’ the qualities and attributes of one who is only a ‘front’ person.

• According to psychologists, there are three ‘selves’ of every person viz. (i)’ persona’ or a mask or a social self, (ii) ‘anima’ or a real self and (iii) ideal self or a ‘role model’. To realize the ‘ideal self’ one must have complete ‘knowledge’ (not just information) of the ‘real self’ of the role model. Even after reading biographies and autobiographies, one is shocked by the unknown skeletons falling out of secret vaults. There are rare angels like Gandhiji who revealed everything and that is why he became a ‘mahatma’. In today’s hyper-active social media milieu there are few secrets if any.

• The biggest causative factor in every success story is the environment - political, social, cultural, legal, natural, ecological et al. One tends to choose a role model based on his/her past achievements. With the dramatic change in the overall business environment, blindly following methods of the past may not yield similar results.

• For success in life, and in any endeavour, one has to battle obstacles, often insurmountable. The obstacles can be new and unimagined and require a spontaneous response to devise ingenious strategies, tactics, manoeuvres and tricks. The weaponry used by the role model for his/her successful past campaigns may be known and used by the follower, but not the ‘real winning’ factors like ‘war tactics and tricks. 

• According to psychologists, performance and levels, one can reach is also determined by personality traits. Each one is unique with distinctive personality traits. Also, some traits including the BIG FIVE are inherited. These inherited traits of the role models and their followers cannot be identical. And, that takes the wind out of the role model concept.

In nutshell, the role model concept as a shortcut to reach the pinnacle of success is alluring to the weak, fickle and confused. The confident and mighty souls should go by the sensible, tried and tested universal wisdom revealed in the following Sanskrit verse, number 6 of Chapter 6 in the Bhagwat Geeta.

Uddhared atmanna atmaanam

na atmananam avasaadayet

atmaiva hy aatmano bandhu

atmaiva ripu aatmanaha

The free style translation runs like this - elevate yourself through (own) mind, do not degrade/deprecate yourself; indeed (you)/ your mind is your real brother/friend and even enemy. 

So dear aspiring wizards, get up, master your mind and leap up to catch your dream!