I never really thought as myself as a good role model. There was always somebody else in the room that was smarter, faster, stronger and better looking.
But over the years I kept showing up, doing the basics and chipping away at pretty much everything, I was keen to have a go at. School, work, sport and relationships, sure I like the big easy wins as much as anybody but for me they were more about luck and just being in the right spot at the right time. Getting lucky was like more a by product of doing all the work, I was all about doing the little one percent things that eventually made stuff look like it came easy.
This role model thing did not start showing up until I started running projects at work and coaching junior football teams. I always believed in just sticking to the basics, most of the time and try to nail them. The fancy stuff would come after all the ground work was done. I never thought anyone really noticed me or what I was doing but it was not long before word seems to get around and people wanted to be on my jobs and parents would go out of there way to get there children into the teams I was coaching.
I suppose the classic example was my son who I thought I was the last person he would see as a roll model, epically after all the wild teenage years but every now and again he ask questions or repeats something I have been banging on for years about. Which to me showed it was listening but just needed time to also work stuff out for himself.
