One of the most common questions we're asked growing up is:
\"Who is your role model?\"
The answers arrive almost instantly—a celebrated cricketer, a movie entertainer, a billionaire, an entrepreneur.
The speed of the answer is often more interesting than the answer itself. We rarely stop to ask what a role model actually means.
Success is visible. Character is not. We confuse admiration with imitation.
Someone may have mastered a sport, built a business, or entertained millions. Those achievements deserve respect. But success in their story doesn't automatically become a blueprint for yours.
No two lives begin at the same place. Different parents. Different struggles. Different opportunities. Different burdens. The person you admire became who they are because of a life you will never live nor would ever want to.
You can borrow their discipline. You can learn from their resilience. You can adopt their habits. But you cannot borrow their destiny. And for sure you never want to be them whole and soul !
A role model is not someone whose achievements you envy. It is someone whose life has quietly shaped yours.
Long before you knew the names of athletes, actors, or entrepreneurs, there were already two people sacrificing parts of their own lives so yours could begin.
They stayed awake when you slept. They worried when you were carefree. They celebrated your victories more than their own. They absorbed hardships you never even noticed. They fed you before feeding themselves. They gave you opportunities they never had in a manner they could in the era they lived theirs.
Whether they were perfect is beside the point. No parent is nor any human who ever lived on this planet.
But if another human being spent decades investing in the person you are becoming, while expecting nothing in return, perhaps that is the closest thing to a role model most of us will ever have.
Heroes inspire us from a distance. Parents build us from within.
The world teaches us to admire those who became extraordinary. Wisdom is recognizing those who made our own lives possible before we knew what admiration was.
The next time someone asks, \"Who is your role model?\", don't let fame answer for you. Let gratitude do the talking. You may find yourself saying, \"My parents.\"
Dedicating this to my father on his birthday today - 17th July 1945 - the day he was born. Happy Birthday Father !
Contemplate on it !
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