Role models, shaping CHARACTER in you! Do you have one? If not, let's get one this year!

From last few weeks, I have been thinking about new year resolution and finding one is really tough, and many a times, is challenging! Even if we have one, mostly, we forget about it half way! So while thinking of a resolution, this year, I thought how good it would be if I find 2 or 3 ‘additional role models’ and inherit what we like most in them, building a STRONGER CHARACTER in us that helps us navigate in this VUCA world better! This write-up talks about 3 such role models (Tiger Woods, Barack Obama and MS Dhoni) and what am I promising to inherit from them!

Tomorrow morning, with the new dawn and sunshine, we all will be in a new year, YEAR 2019! A new year, full of promises, hopes and new energy! While fading year gives an opportunity to reflect back, New Year is time to make new resolutions and promises! These resolutions are way to commit to move forward; and role models play a critical role in keeping us moving forward; they give us hope and show us the way during the darkest of the time. We all need our role models to look up to, especially when we run a family or an organization where we are just not responsible for ourselves but for a group of people, our choices and decision have far more implications. And, in this context, having a role model become even important.

In some capacity or other, we all are leaders be it our family, business or profession. In family, kids look-up to us; in businesses our industry looks-up to us, and in professional life, our employees or team look-up to us! Most of the times, we not only have to navigate through unknown territories and give hope to others and show them the ray of light at the end of tunnel. And honestly, being human, many a times, we ourselves are not so sure about things, still continue to make tough choices and decisions in the hazy situations for our families, businesses or on job! And, you know what I am talking about, it’s not easy at all; it’s really really tough and needs TRUE INSPIRATION! While most of us grow up idolizing our parents, and most of our basic philosophies, values and believes are driven by them and we learn so much from them! Still, at the same time, we need additional role models to draw inspirations from during the different situations. However, the irony is that many of us don’t have additional role models or, we may have them just for namesake, and never think seriously about which characters are we inheriting from them? 

At the year end, while self-reflecting on last year, this question went pretty deep into me leading to thinking who are my additional role models? and what characters I want to inherit from them? Without any doubt, role models not only just inspire us to do more and better but also builds a character that defines who we are! Here are 3 additional role models who pop-up quite instinctively along with the qualities that impressed most:  

1. Tiger Woods || It’s not about failure, but all about ‘Courage’ to accept it and ‘Resolve’ to bounce back:

I must accept honestly that I don’t even know the basics of Golf, and knew Tiger only in the context of being world no# 1 golf player, until when he got into the controversies and started to show up in media for all the wrong reasons. You must be wondering, what is there in those stories to get inspiration from? Some of you may be thinking being ‘the best’ in what you do is the inspiration. Nop, I saw something different here! Being #1 is great and controversy can happen to anyone! Point is not controversy/failure, but how he bounced back and managed his fall from the pinnacle is not something that is everyone’s cup of tea and even most successful persons struggle to bounce back. We all know, the higher the pinnacle, the more painful is disgrace, especially in the age of digital/social media when most of the things are public and information spreads like a jungle fire. And, in case of Tiger, it was a fall from the highest pinnacle (he was at the top of the helm and was one of the most paid sports person in the world), you can imagine how painful it would have been. Still, he not only managed the controversy and recovered from it so well, but also, bounded back to be one among the world top 10 player again. It was his ability only to stand up and gracefully accept his mistakes that’s ‘COURAGE’ that is not easily available. It was his ‘RESOLVE’ only to bounce back to the field and be one of the top golfer again, and he didn’t give-up on that and finally bounced back. That’s a character worthy enough to inherit because failure is inevitable, only strong characters like Tiger would be able to move beyond the failures and bounce back.

2. Barack Obama || Rise against all odds, believe in yourself and others, have hope/faith in your faiths/believes and achieve the unimaginable; Still, be humane, humble and inspirational

Barack Obama don’t need any introduction. He epitomes a common man who believed in himself and others and had faith in his values to rise above all odds and become the world’s most powerful man. He is inspirational and instils HOPE, BELIEVE and FAITH in others and with hope, believe and faith, anyone can achieve anything. Being the most powerful man on the earth and Harvard Alumni, he still remained very humane, humble, and down to earth and was able to connect with everyone so very well. While there are so many, so many things to learn from Barack Obama, top two characters I would want to inherit are a) Instil hope, believe and faith in everyone (including yourself) and inspire others to go against all the odds and achieve the unimaginable b) doesn’t matter who you are, where you are and what you become, always be humane, humble and courteous to everyone.

3. MS Dhoni – Be strategic & decisive; Believing in your decisions, have courage to take charge & lead from front; During your success or the most unfavourable times, stay calm, composed, focused and undeterred

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who in India doesn’t know him? He started his international cricketing career at the age of 23, which is relatively late in larger context and didn’t have very successful debut, however, once he started never looked back. Through his strategic and focused approach, he redefined the Indian Cricket and won all most all the cricketing titles that anyone can. While he gave so much to the Indian Cricket, his ability to stay calm, composed and think rationally even under the most demanding situations is something to imitate. Dhoni’s courage to go against the tide and make tough decisions and lead from the front during the most troubled time is something to be proud of.

 Think strategically, make tough decisions that you are HONESTLY convinced about, and then, take charge and lead from the front; Doesn’t matter how much we try our lives, both personal or professional, to be settled and smooth, reality is, it will not be, therefore, it is an art that we remain calm, composed and focused, not only during the ups, but also during the testing pressured times, the way MS Dhoni have been. It is really easy said than done! People do break; during the highs we tend to fly without caring for others and during the lows/adverse time we don’t know how to handle it, but MS Dhoni stayed balanced all the time. These two characters anyone should inherit.

Finally, as, I expect any year to be full of ‘ups & downs’, ‘highs & lows’, taking cues from Barack’s character of believing and having faith/hope of achieving something unachievable, I have set some personal/professional/family goals to achieve in 2019 which are, like MS Dhoni does, carefully thought through and aligned strategically to what I want to do professionally and more importantly as a person! As, time is full of surprises and nobody knows, what is next, my promise to myself is, no matter what, if, I get into an unwanted situation (which I know I will), I will not BREAK and will BOUNCE BACK the way Tiger did!

During next December, at the end of 2019, when I look back, I MUST be finding a STRONGER CHARACTER in Manish, who can stand in front of mirror and say confidently, I am stronger than a year earlier; and yet SENSITIVE and HUMBLE enough that I could feel and sense others without them letting me know what they want.

With that, I wish all my friends and everyone a happy, prosperous and more peaceful year 2019 than 2018! May god give us all strength to fight and overcome any obstacle on our way to make our lives and societies better!