Being the Role Model, Even When You Don’t Get It Right

Being a role model sounds good until you realize people are watching you even when you don’t know it.

Throughout my life, I always felt like I had the ability to be a great leader, even before I fully understood what leadership really meant. I just knew I carried myself a certain way, and I believed that if I did things right, people would follow.

But life gave me a reality check when I was about 17 years old.

My cousin saw a shoebox full of money and asked me where I got my Jordans from. At that time, I was doing things I shouldn’t have been doing. In my mind, I thought I was just making decisions for myself. I didn’t realize somebody was watching.

Then my cousin told me I was his role model — but for the wrong reasons.

That hit me different.

From that moment, I started to understand that whether we know it or not, somebody is always paying attention. Somebody is learning from how we move, how we talk, how we handle pain, success, failure, relationships, money, and life.

And that responsibility can feel heavy.

Sometimes being seen as a leader makes you feel like you have to be perfect. Like you can’t make mistakes. Like if a relationship goes bad, people automatically wonder what you did wrong. If you show up somewhere people don’t expect you to be, they question why you’re there. If you’re struggling mentally, people still expect you to smile, show up, and lead.

But the truth is, leaders are human too.

We get tired. We battle anxiety. We make mistakes. We have days where we don’t have the mental capacity to talk, fake smile, or be everything for everybody.

I’ve learned that when you’re called to something greater, the responsibility on your life may be different. That doesn’t mean you won’t mess up. It means you have to keep growing, keep learning, and keep giving yourself grace.

You may not even think you’re a role model, but somebody is watching you. It might be your siblings, your kids, your family, your community, or somebody who never says it out loud.

They see your car. They see your business. They see your degrees. They see your shoes. They see how you carry yourself. They see your wins, but they also see how you respond when life gets hard.

Everybody has skeletons. Everybody is a work in progress. Nobody is perfect.

So give yourself grace, but don’t stop striving to be better.

You don’t have to be perfect to be a role model. You just have to be willing to grow.

I see you in the movement.

No excuses. Don’t give up.