Good Examples

For many years I was fond of offering this advice from John Mason: "you were born an original; don't die a copy."

I still believe this to be sound advice. Too many young people copy those making the most "noise" and in doing so gain attention and notoriety yet miss something glaringly conscious to the rest of us who have exited that silly phase: noise can be downright pointless.

And yet, now I think something beyond this quote too: some people are just good examples. In those cases, I say go ahead and "copy" as needed.