Having Life Heroes: Modeling Behavior & Attitudes

Tony Robbins has trained some of the best athletes, soldiers and business people in the world. What he says is that you don’t learn or copy those who are equal to you. You model the behavior of those at the top of their game in whatever the field is. So for example, if you want to learn shooting, do exactly what the top shooters do. 

The best way to do this is spend time with, get mentoring and train directly from these people.

But in this day and age of the Internet, with the plethora of books, blogs, podcasts & video interviews online, you can learn from these folks without even meeting or knowing them. 

I’ve long been a follower of the media personalities Joe Rogan & Tim Ferriss, tech investors and operators:  Kevin Rose, Naval Ravikant, Elad Gil, Chamath Palatpapitya and the late and great writer, tv & travel personality Anthony Bourdain. All incredibly accomplished and interesting individuals operating at the highest levels of their chosen professions. 

I also believe these hero models don’t need to be real humans either but can also be characters in tv shows or movies. I’m personally inspired by & drawn to characters like the street savvy, cool and collected Han (played by Sung Kang) from “Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift”, Humphrey Bogart’s tough but sentimental character Rick Blaine in Casablanca. Who can beat the charming, clever, insightful & insouciant Patrick Jane of the “The Mentalist”. I also love the witty and seriously interesting Dos Equus “Worlds Most interesting Man.” At a practical level, who can beat the fighting skills of Jason Bourne & Bruce Wayne aka Batman, or the ruthless effectiveness of hedge fund billionaire Bobby Axelrod in “Billions”??

By mixing & modeling these various heroes (real life or not) you can come up with your own personality archetype, unique to yourself. We humans are amazing copy monkeys so why not leverage this trait & instinct to get you closer to a better future self. 

 It’s an important step to get closer to your own authentic life. This way you can fulfill the advice and end goal that my friend & top investor Mike Maples Jr. shared with me, “Don’t have Heroes, Be your own Hero.”