I've been thinking about this idea lately. I have a few people I could think of, but struggle to think of a primary role model in my life.
Who is/are yours? How does he/she/they affect how you live your life?
I don't have one role model because I do not have only one interest in my life. I have many, and therefore there are a number of people that I turn to for advice and mentorship. I would say that the person I look up to most in my life has always been my grandfather on my dads side. He's a very hard worker and started his own business which has been extremely successful. I admire that and I admire the man he has remained inspite of his success. I also admire how much he cares for his grandchildren. He wasn't the best father, but that is also a lesson I've learned from observing him. You can read about him Here, he was Huffington Post man of the day It's extremely important to have role models or mentors in life. At every stage.
I'm not entirely sure. I have people I look up to and aspire to be like in specific ways - for example, I admire and envy Neil Gaiman's skill in writing and narrative creation. I admire Amanda Palmer's confidence and connection to her fans. I have people closer to me who help me and keep pushing me forward - close friends, mainly, and an ex-teacher and his girlfriend who have become friends. Those two in particular are always ready with advice and opinions I can't get from my peers, lacking in experience as they are.
Ha, kleinbl00 is my internet role model. I have a friend who has a lot of good habits. He's meticulous, good with money, hard-working. But other than that, I don't really have any role models that come to mind. Which is unfortunate, because emulating teaches you a lot more about yourself, and the things that stick with you wind up making you who you are. My role model is the projection of who I want to be in 20 years. When I come to an impasse, I try and imagine what I would want to tell my son or daughter had happened, and then I do that.
Richard Feynman, as known from his lectures, and the book Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, which everyone should read.
I do not think i have ever had a role model. Not in the sense that i have ever known anybody who i have aspired to be like, that is. My entire life has a been a series of short stories in which i flit from one dream to the next, modelling my being on the where i want to be in 50 years. Unfortunately due to my mental health, i currently see myself dead not in 50, but in half a year, and so all kind of motivation to become anyone or anything has ceased. The Seven is the only thing halting Prophet, and 7 dies in half a year.
In my past years, there were a few that I had. One was a colorguard coach that I had. Everyday I pushed myself to prove to him that I was something special. That's really what it boiled down to for me: proving to someone that I wasn't content with mediocrity.
Personally, my role models have changed over time, as have I. If I had to say who my first role model was, I would have to say, The Incredible Hulk. He's green (most of the time) and his alter-ego is a genius. I don't think I thought of what The Hulk symbolizes very much, as a four year old boy. I don't know that I have a role model right now, or even any sort of mentor, which is a bit unusual for me as I have been very lucky to have had people who are well-established in their fields, take an interest in me and whatever I was doing. The most consistent role-model for me throughout my life so, has to be my parent's good friend. He makes his living as a consultant by running seminars based on group-building and conflict resolution. He showed me pretty early on that there are many solutions to any problem and that creating the kind of life that one wishes to live, is not only possible, but is worth making the effort to achieve.
It's funny, because I think the Hulk is still up there for me. I think about this often, and especially when I'm reading/watching X-Men because Beast has always been up there for me too, and I find them to be two sides of the same coin. They're both incredibly intelligent scientists (and/or politicians), which I aspire for, they were both affected by experiments gone awry, they both have extreme personal loathing and anger over their conditions, which are self afflicted, and at the world for the treatment they receive by society for their conditions, and are both entirely solitary, despite that they do find solace in others quite a bit. The most important factor, to me at least, is seeing their opinions on humanity. They're misanthropic as hell, they have deep-rooted boiling disappointment and disdain for the majority of humans... but they respect them and fight to better them regardless. All they do is fight for them, even though they're viewed as monsters, shot at, and attempted to be systematically eradicated. They never fully know why, they just know it's the right thing to do and know that there's hope yet for the betterment of society. They know great things can be done, and fuck if I don't struggle with that daily as well. They're the pinnacle of what we can be as people, and fittingly, they're rejected by the majority either because of that or because of irrelevant factors, and they still do the right thing. I respect that so much and those characters certainly made me a better person, Beast more than Hulk, no doubt, but Hulk has been there too, and in more recent adaptations, he takes on these traits even more.
I don't care too much for smart Hulk but your points are well-taken. It's interesting to me how the further a person deviates from the norm toward an ideal, the less they are seen as fully human. I think that says quite a lot about us as a species though.