Observing role models is better than mimicking them
Many people consider successful people to be their role models. A role model is a person you usually look up to when you need guidance, advice or help. Online, many people look up to a few bloggers like ProBlogger and CopyBlogger in order to improve their own blogs. Many people also try to mimic everything these types of bloggers do in order to attain the same kind of success. Unfortunately, copying successful bloggers will never result in success. You need your own unique blogging personality and mentality, that you can apply tips and advice from your role models to, in order to be successful.
Successful people do not copy others
Successful people do not copy others, nor do they mimic the efforts of their role models. A dedicated person should already have an idea of what they want and how they want it in order to be able to learn from the mistakes and advice of others. That is where the role models come in: their mistakes and advices can help you in your blogging efforts. The very concept of a role model is there so you can learn things in order to help you with what you have already set your mind on doing. A role model is not supposed to dictate what you should do.
There is no “next” big thing
Many people who look up to other people for everything without trying something creative and unique on their own depend on others to lead the whole way. These people unfortunately believe in the widespread myth that they can be the next “something“, where that “something” is usually considered to be something like ProBlogger, CopyBlogger, IBM, Microsoft, Tupperware, Nokia, Clint Eastwood, Al Pacino and many other entities which are considered icons by different groups of people for different reasons. The reality is that there will never be a “next” anything in this world.
Anything effective and successful is always unique. You cannot be the next-anything; you have to be you in order to develop your own icon and model that others can look up to. You can be successful in things you want to do, but if you want to copy someone in order to have the same success, you should start analyzing the nature of your goals. Chances are your goals will be similar to the goals of your role models since you initially copied their efforts with the hopes of achieving similar success.
I try to learn from many other people
Try to learn from the mistakes and success of others and apply such knowledge to your own plans and strategies. Be your own “next” thing if you absolutely cannot let go of the “next-something” myth. Mimicking and following others will only result in you looking to others for guidance for everything and forever. I do my best everyday to do something that I feel is my own work instead of doing something simply because someone successful is doing it. I do not automatically respect a site simply because a million other people respect that site. I observe sites for my own analysis and if I feel someone is sharing a thing that I can learn from, I appreciate that person and I apply the new knowledge to my own life and online efforts.
Take John Chow as an example for something I think I did that I did not need to do. These days, I somehow feel that choosing the “dot Com” as part of a new name for my site may have been influenced a bit because of John Chow [your fault John], whose site name is “JOHN CHOW DOT COM.” Thus I have been thinking lately of stripping that last part since “The Reasoner” name will suit me better. If I can realize that something was influenced by someone else when it doesn’t go along with what is good for me and my site, I think such realization is golden and I should address the situation and learn to avoid doing things without specific reasons, no matter how small they are.
I myself try to learn from many different people like Copyblogger, John Chow and Darren Rowse who runs Problogger. I also learn from almost every site in my links section, including Valerie, SP, Ronalfy, Daniel, Vera, Nicole, Sawai and many others. Help others and learn from them also. Apply small tips and help you observe from other bloggers you look up to in order to make your own blogging efforts better.
Learn from others to be successful in your efforts
Observe your role models for tips and advice you can apply to the blogging efforts you are already focusing on your own. That is the only way to succeed. Everything and everyone that has made a difference in this world, both online and offline, either has their own unique character and entity since the beginning, or they learnt to have a unique character and entity along the way by learning from others and their own efforts. Try to follow that principle as your role model and you will achieve a lot.
:
( February 17th, 2007 at 4:25 am )
Hey! Nice that you’ve mentioned that. Good tips
they are ALWAYS useful!! =D thanks for sharing!!
RE: Thank-you! Yes, I am really excited!! Hmm, I’m not sure yet, I probably will spend my time with my friends afterall its the last time we can meet (or possibly not). And do all the other stuff (ex: get G2) haah..was suppose to get it last year, but because I had a vacation I didn’t do it. I better do it fast this year because I will be away again XD! Thanks for helping me in taking a look at the code..very much appreciate it *heart* =D! I will take a look at the link you’ve gave me, thanks so much again!!
Quote
Reply & quote this
:
( February 17th, 2007 at 8:26 am )
Hahaha, thanks for plugging me! Hehehe.
Anyways, yep, I agree with you about not copying others. I LOVE to do my own thing, but then a lot of people see it and like it, so it then becomes a trend… Haha, I’ve seen it a lot of times, with the stuff I came up with… LOL.
Quote
Reply & quote this
:
( February 17th, 2007 at 9:56 am )
I think being yourself should require no effort. You are who you are and you should write about what you want to write about. But that’s not to say you can’t be influenced by other people, or that you shouldn’t try to get people to like your site. Everyone is influenced by someone or something else in some way or another (I think I’ve said “some” too much), but there are some people out there that can’t draw a line between learning and mimicking. Personally, it has never been a goal of mine to achieve popularity on the web. I don’t track my hits and obsess over anything like that, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate my visitors or the comments and feedback they leave. I do very much. But at the same time I’m not the kind of person that will change myself so other people will want to come see what I have to say. It can be a bit complicated sometimes. I guess it depends on what you want to get from your site. I hope this made sense, I’m pretty tired right now..
Quote
Reply & quote this
Find/Add me at these places: Flickr | MySpace | Twitter :
( February 17th, 2007 at 8:31 pm )
Vera, thanks.
Also, that’s good to know. Now is the time to enjoy the time. 
You should get G2 [I am assuming you are talking about menalto Gallery?] before you become more busy, heh. 
Chau, no problem.
Yes, doing your own work is better since that way you will feel more motivated and will not give up on your efforts easily. You are right about a lot of people seeing something nice, picking it and then using it themselves.
Nicole, you have an excellent point there. Being ourselves “should require no effort.” The effort will probably be put on the task of making sure our readers understand us, right? You are right about everything being influenced in one way or the other by many other things and factors.
It’s interesting to know that you don’t look at your hits and track them to see how your blog is doing. Many bloggers focus more on stats than their content everyday, since their focus is not on producing good content for their readers but having more traffic. It makes sense, don’t worry.
Quote
Reply & quote this
:
( February 18th, 2007 at 3:27 pm )
I don’t think that anyone effective and successful must be entirely unique. However, I do understand where you’re coming from about how one should develop and become familiar with his or her own personality and goals.
I checked out your About page. I think it’s maybe second or third longest About Me page I’ve seen.
Well written and covers a lot of ground that should be covered. Great job, Bez !
Quote
Reply & quote this
Find/Add me at these places: Flickr | MySpace | Twitter :
( February 19th, 2007 at 3:36 pm )
Maki, thanks for the comment, I really appreciate it.
I thought for a while over your use of the word “entirely” and I think I agree; being “entirely” unique isn’t necessary when one wants to be successful.
As for my About page, thank you.
I think I may go around and look for ways to shorten it because of you finding it among the top 3 longest About Me pages out there. Maybe that is a good thing?
Quote
Reply & quote this
:
( February 19th, 2007 at 3:41 pm )
Hi Bes,
Don’t get me wrong. I love your About Page! The length and detail makes it very easy for readers to learn more about the person behind the blog.
I think all readers will appreciate your candidness and actually will like reading more about your personal life and interests. I enjoyed it myself and I think you don’t have to change it. It’s great!
Quote
Reply & quote this
Find/Add me at these places: Flickr | MySpace | Twitter :
( February 19th, 2007 at 4:25 pm )
Maki, thanks so much for the nice words regarding that page. Your comment is really encouraging.
I am glad you enjoyed reading that page.
Quote
Reply & quote this
:
( February 19th, 2007 at 8:08 pm )
“Be yourself”? Sorry but this phrase is so overused that’s it’s lost all meaning for me. I’ve come to realize that if my “myself” is not up to the same standards as someone else’s “myself”, I will not be accepted by them. If I tell someone my what my life choices are or career choices, or if I show them how I dress, the “be yourself” “choice” won’t work with most people. Example: Those who want to grow up to become artists/or another weird job. And you don’t need a verbal cue to get it (depending on the case), visual cues are enough.
Whenever I read or hear someone (especially a stranger giving advice) saying the same old “be yourself”, it feels like the same old recycled words I heard when growing up. People keep saying it because it’s never seemed to fix anything over time. It hasn’t evolved. This blog entry (an interesting read I must say) is about being original, and not copying others, but so many times, I feel I’m reading the same thing over and over.
Quote
Reply & quote this
Find/Add me at these places: Flickr | MySpace | Twitter :
( February 21st, 2007 at 6:36 am )
Hi Sil. Thanks for the comment. You bring up an important point: hearing the same thing again and again. I apologize if my post was confusing or unclear. I was talking about being yourself when it comes to handling your blog and your posts, and the way one expresses themselves through it. Also, what I meant was that you have to set your own standards of success and follow them.
Your example of someone growing up to become an artist [I like that profession] or a “weird” job is a nice example. The words are said repeatedly because very few people actually try to be themselves. Also, saying the same thing again and again may sound verbatim. However, that may not mean one is doing what everyone else is doing, since one also offers their own version and reasoning as to why they believe in something that others believe in too. Otherwise, even using a blog and English letters to write any post makes me a person who is doing what everyone else is doing. Does that make sense?
Thanks for letting me know what you think. I really appreciate it, as it helps me further refine my future posts on this topic.
Quote
Reply & quote this
:
( February 21st, 2007 at 5:34 pm )
“Does that make sense?” Yes it does. My comment post was a response to “you have to be you in order to develop your own icon and model that others can look up to.” At first that sounded liked another just-be-yourself quicky. But rereading your entire post, I can see now that you are basically breaking down the “be yourself” into practical advice - learn from others, evolve from them and your mistakes to become original, etc. (since I’m not an avid reader of blogs, I did read your post in a non-blogging context)
Quote
Reply & quote this
Find/Add me at these places: Flickr | MySpace | Twitter :
( February 22nd, 2007 at 11:30 am )
Thanks for that comment Sil. I see now what you mean. Non-blogging context; that’s very interesting. Yes, you can look at the post that way too.
Thanks again. I really appreciate your time reading and commenting on this. I will try to be clearer in my future posts and write them in a more non-blog context also, as that would be better too.
Quote
Reply & quote this
What others are saying about this article elsewhere
[...] Observing is better than mimicking – How to learn from role models (The Reasoner) [...]
[...] that way and more appropriate. I thought about this change because of what I wrote before about doing things simply because others did it. Please let me know what you [...]
[...] or someone. Even if the people you respect or idolize react in a specific way to something, try to learn by observing and analyzing instead of copying those people and reacting in the same exact [...]
[...] People who follow others online without thinking have the tendency to do the same in the offline life because they probably have personal issues. They cannot express themselves, and they want attention and approval from someone. If they disagree with someone, they feel secluded, since their happiness revolves around the concept of sucking up and keeping someone famous happy. These people do not realize that observing role models is better than mimicking them. [...]