Inc ran a story on how Mark Zuckerberg isn’t a great role model for kids looking to go into technology. This gets us into that sticky question of what is a role model? Is a role model someone you duplicate and try to live like or is a role model a case study in how to do certain things well. Barry Bonds is a terrible role model for how to treat people but a phenomenal one for how to play the game of baseball.
Sometimes it’s important to understand that everyone has flaws and is a product of their circumstances. Mark Zuckerberg had an opportunity to chase a dream and it required him to drop out of college. He didn’t drop out just because. Same with Bill Gates. To some extent it was the same with Steve Jobs. They are great examples of how to succeed when given an opportunity. Why are we therefore focused only on the fact that they dropped out of college. That’s a by-product of the opportunities they had – it didn’t cause the opportunities.
Let’s bring things back to common sense and focus on cause as opposed to the headline catching parts of the story. Yeah, we’re going to lose some sizzle and sex appeal but we’re going to learn some valuable life lessons.