issue59

hedengboUID: 2797857

TOPIC: ISSUE59 - "Too much emphasis is placed on role models. Instead of copying others, people should learn to think and act independently and thus make the choices that are best for them."
WORDS: 729
TIME: 00:39:06
DATE: 2010-6-26 10:50:22


Be yourself or be the copy of other people? This kind of choice keeps with us through our growth. However, in my opinion, this is not a choice; instead, they are two different periods of our lives or different parts of our lives. By balancing them, we can success more easily.

Role models are important for almost everyone at the beginning of one’s lives. For example, when we are children, parents always tells us that you should behave like anyone else or that you should learn from one distinguished person. This is useful to shape quickly of one's behavior, nature, and dream. Even when we grow older, studying in one field or starting our career, this is very important as the experiences from other people are important for the first step of one thing or people might lose themselves. They might just once try something but failed and this is what you wanted to try. By learning from them, you can avoid failure the precedents suffered. And in fact, almost all the education we received are directly or indirectly the experience from others, thus, to a larger extant, they are all a kind of copying. On another hand, the distinguished persons are something that could encourage us and guide our way toward our dreamland. When thinking about the thousands of tries when Edison determined to make a bulb, we might be greatly encouraged especially when we are in trouble or suffering from failures. People always have their advantages, which are what we should learn from.

But we should also notice that our world is becoming diverse--we need people who are willing to think independently and could do something creatively. Copying others without our own ideas might be worse then knowing nothing about others especially in the new industries such as IT and some advanced fields. As Edison had once said (and I cite here in my own words) that the genius are compound with 99 percent of perspiration and 1 percent of inspiration but the latter is more important. In the science area, only creative ones could get the great achievement--Nobel Prize always owned by those who make great contribution and explore the new areas in their field instead of those who just copying others. Hundreds years ago, we never think about that one day we could step onto the moon but this finally came true when Armstrong firstly stepp onto the moon It is the courage to break the limit of the past experience that make things seemed impossible to become reality. To person, who always dare to break the limit are always easy to be successful. Bill Gates, who dropped his College Education in Harvard, finally succeeded to catch the opportunity to become one of the richest persons in the world. However, his behavior was once regarded as unbelievable and no one understands him as he's doing something few people ever did before. This can be could a kind of creation, which is greater than creating some certain things. And also, his creativity to make the PC makes Microsoft the one of the greatest company of the world.

However, we should also know that to think independently doesn't mean to do something regardless of the laws of the nature or the regulation of the field, which is the fantasy instead of the dream. And at the beginning of one thing, the basic fundaments are always the same as a common sense, which is unchallengeable. Take Bill Gates as an example again, even he did something seems different; it is without doubt that his knowledge of computer, his previous education is vital for his developing even after dropping. Flying to moon, for instance, is also based on some basic laws of the nature. What's more, the independence should also admire the social regulation and laws. Business, for example, shouldn't deviate from this.

In sum, we should keep a balance between the learning from the models and to act independently. Too much emphasis on any of them will lead to bad result. In fact, as a really intelligent person, one should try to distinguish the right from wrong and create something new on the base of the previous experience combined with the newly developed technologies and his own creativity. No matter in one's career or one's daily life, this is significant if one wants to do better.