Unlock Life’s Answers
Through Deeper
Questions

We have all had those moments. A high-profile figure drops a “secret to success” and suddenly, your own professional hurdles feel a bit… small. But if we are being honest, is copying their answers actually going to help us pass our own tests? Let’s explore how we look at inspiration, and how we can filter that through a more personal lens.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE BOND

First, it is worth asking why we listen to them in the first place. Why does a celebrity’s advice feel more “real” than a neighbour’s?

As humans, we are biologically wired to imitate “prestige models,” who are attractive, successful and competent. We watch, remember and reproduce their behaviours because our brains assume that if it worked for them, it will work for us. This is supercharged by what sociologists term a Parasocial Interaction. Because we see these figures daily in our feeds, we develop an “intimacy at a distance” and see them as a real-life friend. We feel like we are getting tailored counsel from a mentor who cares, even though it is a one-way street. The danger? We adopt their choices without realizing they were never designed for our specific reality. 

THE DISTORTION OF THE LENS

When we admire the rich and the famous, we are mostly looking at the “survivors.” It is a bit like the survivorship bias seen in WWII planes. When we copy a celebrity’s risky move, we are looking at the one person who “survived” the gamble, ignoring the thousands who did the same thing and failed. 

Our brains then double down on this with the Availability Heuristic. Because famous success stories are so loud and everywhere, we overestimate how common they are. We think, “Lots of people get rich from startups,” because those are the only stories the algorithm feeds us, while we scroll right past the evidence of burnout or plain old luck.

This brings us to a deeper philosophical question.

What are we actually chasing?

CHARACTER OVER OUTCOMES

In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle argues that the highest human good isn’t wealth or fame, but Eudaimonia, which is often translated as “flourishing,” the road to which passes through Phronesis, or practical wisdom. This is the ability to deliberate well about what is good for you in your specific situation. When we blindly copy a celebrity’s lifestyle, we are substituting someone else’s context for careful, personal deliberation that makes a virtuous life possible. You can admire an icon’s discipline (a virtue) without needing to replicate their private jet (an outcome).

At the end of the day, it is entirely natural to look outward and be inspired when we feel uncertain about our own direction. But maybe the trick is to admire precisely. Borrow their work ethic, sure, but keep your own context. Your life isn’t a narrative to be compared; it is a project to be lived on your own terms.