Role Model

The question "Who is your role model?" often comes up in interviews, podcasts, AMAs, and more.

Personally, I tend to shy away from answering that question because my answer does not include the name of a designer 🙈.

First, let me define what I consider a role model to be: someone who inspires you to copy them exactly.

A more politically correct answer is that we emulate their behaviors, attitudes, qualities, methods, and more. Everything about that person is deemed desirable, and they heavily influence our personal development and decision-making.

My role model is not a designer, but a doctor: Dr. Atul Gawande.

In 2014, when I first read his book "Complications," I was instantly captivated by his passion for being a practitioner, a teacher who shares reflections, a lifelong learner who stays humble and grounded at all times.

Since then, I have listened to every lecture and read all of his books, including "Being Mortal." This book gave me enormous strength when I lost my father-in-law and phenomenal wisdom about the mortality of life. I love the way he thinks, does things, and articulates his thoughts.

Although I have not met Dr. Gawande (and I am okay if I never do), he has influenced me in most of my major decisions.

I learned from him how to maintain my passion as a practitioner (parallel: he still performs surgery to this day).

I learned how to give back to students as a faculty. (He is a visiting faculty member at the most prestigious medical schools worldwide)

I learned how to constantly share learnings and reflections with my fraternity (he writes about all his learnings to date- check out his books).

I learned how to keep in touch with my tribe (He speaks at important medical conferences, sharing his reflections and observations)

Additionally, how to make time for non profit while having a busy life doing all the above (he makes time for non-profit work at LifeBox and more) and

I am learning not to venture into this one (he advises the government, influencing public health policies).

To me, his life is a brilliant example of both great work and a great life.

Having a role model and following in their footsteps is much easier than creating everything from scratch.

While I may not be able to emulate everything in Dr. Gawande's life, I will undoubtedly carry the inspiration of being a practitioner, practioner-teacher, author(someday), and trustee of a non-profit with me for the rest of my life.

Who are your role models? what have your learnt from them? Share in the comments below and it would be super fun 🤩