On Role Models

What sits behind the decision, when owners of premium cars tape over their plates to hide them from the cameras? You see it near expensive restaurants, under “no parking” signs, on sidewalks, on lawns, blocking driveways — and out on the road, where the same cars tear past with open disregard for the speed limit and the lane markings.

How much do people like that respect the rules of the game — social norms, the law, the shared safety of everyone around them? And if any of this looks like a marker of high status — being “above” the law — then it’s worth asking a different question: can you expect someone like that to honor the terms of a signed deal, or a gentleman’s agreement, with you? What might that cost you down the line?

Recently I spent more than half an hour waiting for my car at Sheremetyevo airport, stuck in the crush. On top of the traffic being badly organized, drivers simply stopped in the main lane and blocked the way, unhurriedly loading the bodies and suitcases of their “bosses.” How hard is it to take a few seconds, pull into the passenger pickup lane, and call your driver a few minutes before you walk out so he rolls in from the nearest lot? It seems that, at times, the display of one’s ego outranks mutual respect.

More rarely now, but you can still run into armed guards in restaurants and other public places. What led the people who hired them to such measures? Do we really enjoy eating a meal with an extra dose of anxiety?

Sadly, success sometimes leads to a contempt for social norms, laws and basic etiquette — turning the way you treat the people around you into a top-down affair. But what example are we setting for the young, the ones just starting out and looking for someone to model themselves on? Which images do we hand them? What kind of society do we want to live in, and how do we want to treat one another? One where everyone thinks only of themselves? One where whoever made money by any means available is considered above the rest?

It’s worth remembering that for every “big shot” there’s always someone bigger.

What gives me hope, though, is that more and more successful people are choosing the path of being a worthy example — working on themselves, and championing values aimed at decency in your dealings, mutual respect, and the better qualities in us all.

Here’s to not just success, but to being a role model worth following! 😎