A wise person doesn’t learn only from their own mistakes. They take the time to learn from the experiences of others as well.

That’s why role models are so very important. You have the opportunity to learn from their lives without having to reinvent the wheel or make the costly mistakes that often lead to breakthroughs.

Contemporary Role Models are Limited

The problem is that we tend to only observe contemporary role models.

We watch what successful people are doing and trying to learn from them. We might even pay for some training or coaching from these people as well.

This is all great but it underscores why we need some dead role models in our lives as well.

Dead Roles Models Reveal a More Accurate Picture

The benefit of a dead role model is that they’ve already lived and finished their life. You know how they did. You know how the story ends.

With contemporary role models, you’re just seeing a small sliver of their lives. They may look successful now but they could be headed in a wrong direction and neither of you would know it.

Dead role models either finished well or they didn’t and you can see the impact of all the actions of their lives on the totality of their lives.

How Do You Learn from a Dead Role Model?

The best way to learn from a role model that is deceased it to read everything you can about their lives.

Read biographies and other accounts. Read their writings as well as what their contemporaries wrote about them.

Soon, you’ll get a good sense of their strengths as well as their weaknesses. With this information in hand, you can then leverage this information in your own life in remarkable ways.