There are two tigers doing the news rounds off late. An Indian one and an American one. Well, the American one is busy hiding in the woods while the Indian one is busy having a master blast.
Iconic figures have two qualities. They are great at what they do, and they are good human beings. These are necessary and sufficient qualities. Drop the ball on any one of them and you are out of the game. That is precisely what has happened (sadly) with Tiger woods. He is a brilliant player but failed miserably at being a good human being. One might argue that extra-marital affairs are not something new. So why blow this one out of proportion? Because Tiger Woods is a celebrity (possibly was an icon too before this incident). If as an individual I would have considered Tiger woods my idol, I would be deeply stressed by what he has done. Because in a way it would have reflected on my personal preferences. I find it indeed very sad that such a great player of the game had to take an indefinite break from golf. All his hardwork, persevarance and patience seems to have come to nought. And I am not even talking about shelling out half his wealth to his wife.
Now about the Indian tiger. Two decades in cricket, tons of runs, infinite respect and a billion hearts backing him up. Top it up with humongous personal wealth. This is the stuff icons, nay idols are made of. Of course one can always argue that there might be skeletons hiding inside his closet too that have simply not come out. For the benefit of a billion people I hope this isnt true. In fact at a personal level I am sure that there aren't any such.
All this has got me thinking about a new twist to IT off-shoring. Tiger woods has been dumped by Accenture as a brand icon. Can his job be offshored to the Indian Tiger ??
Go on..be a tiger ! (but an Indian one please)
Episode 2045 Scott Adams: Silicon Valley Bank Prediction, Trump Dominance,
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Maine...
1 year ago
Your post has got me into thinking about Role Models, why do we consider someone as a role model?
ReplyDeleteWhat makes a Role model?
We admire celebrities for their talents, because they are best at what they do and follow them, we want to be like them.
So we even go beyond exploring their talents for which they are a celebrities and expect them to be good in their personal life too.
Did Tiger Woods go to everyone and tell them 'Make me your role model, make me your role model'..No right?
People made him one.
He just played fantastic golf which I am sure he still will if people allow him to.
We tend to forget that the person should be only appreciated for his/her talents but we create
larger than life image of him and make him our god, idol.
And media plays a important role in making them famous celebrities.
Who knows what goes on in the heads of these people while they enjoy the idol status and the riches and fortunes of being on the top.
Too much success and admiration blinds them and makes them feel they will be liked by everyone no matter what they do, how they behave.
They feel a fake assurance that their fans will still love them in spite of their frivolous attitude.
Or is it the other way round? Isn't their role model status blind us from their real self.
Agreed that Tiger Woods is an idol and a role model of many, and there comes a prize with it. His actions will be monitored
and criticized.
But not to forget he is a human too and he can also make mistakes.
I don't mean to say he is not to blame. His actions were shameful. He surely is to blame for for he did, which is disgraceful.
And his role model status can not forgive him for his mistakes.
But if we think like this: May be Tiger Woods was like that at early age as well..and that he might have had affairs with plenty of girls in school.
Nobody must have made an issue of it at that time because of two reasons. 1. he wasn't committed 2. he was not famous
Just because he went on to become a famous golfer , and people considered him larger than life..
and now that his true self has been revealed in front of the masses, he will no more be considered as a role model.
I feel..there will be genius people around, highly talented and most appreciated.
but they should be appreciated for their talents.
we should try not to expect them to be perfect in all respect..and make them our Gods, which will save us from the disappointment.
But to say all this is very easy, can we really separate the person's talents from a person?
I beg to differ. Being a casanova doesn't mean a person is not a good human being. After all who made him the casanova? The girls around him... Women engage in a dalliance by choice, men by chance :-)
ReplyDeleteBy no means he has brought the game to disrepute. He still remains a great player and will continue to do so. I'm sure you didn't make him a role model because he was a good husband right?