My Role models during grad school

I never cared much for celebrity gossips.  I still don't, but there are things I noticed about them, that are very special, and deserves Mugu's seal of approval. Yes, there are a couple, and they are not who you think they are.

 

1) Silvester Stallone:  I had Rocky and Rambo playing on my repeat to keep me company during my lonely months of thesis writing.  A lot of people think that his movies are better suited for the brainless machos.  A friend of mine in LA, who knows the Italian Stallion personally, told me that he is one of the few actors who insists of doing everything himself, including scripts and stunts.  The characters he created (Rocky and Rambo) reflects on his ideals for the person.  It is good motivation, a reminder how one can overcome any challenge.

 

2) Billy Blanks:  I first came across him with his TaeBo infomercials.  At first I thought he is all BS, but at some point I decided to watch it.  It's physically demanding.  Now, some people like to make things demanding to show you how much better they are, but not Billy.  In his rigor you can see that he is humble and gentle at heart.  He is also very warm and genuine in what he says at the end of each video.

 

3) Kyung-Wha Chung:  I already mentioned her in a previous article on this blog.  Her strength and determination almost parallel that Stallone depicted in Rocky.  Back in the days when the Asian violinist wasn't a household phenomenon, and that the musical world where she was in was dominated by a cartel of musicians who didn't want to accept her.   She knew she would win, and she did.

 

4) Robert S. MacNamera:  I learnt of him from The Fog of War.  Yes, he has been a contraversal figure, having served both JFK and Johnson during much of the Vietnam war.  What I was impressed about him was his effective use of numbers.  He has a certain acumen in analysis that I came to admire.  I later read his work In Retrospect, a sort of autobiography with a focus of his experience from the Vietnam War.  It is a very inspiring read and no detail was spared.  Not to mention, he is also the personification of the American Dream, where hard work and determination was the virtue of his time.

 

5) Jacques Brel:  I was drawn to his music when I visited the Jacques Brel Museum some years ago in Brussels.  I was moved to tears by his music.  Also, the amount he has accomplished in his short life (he died of cancer in 1978) was incredible, and served as inspiration of a new generation of singers.  The moment he discovered his terminal condition, he simply took the devil-may-care attitude and learnt how to fly.  He knew pretty well, that his body might perish with the disease, but his spirit would live on.

 
6) Richard P. Feynman:  I got a hold of his biography, Genius, by James Gleick.  Behind his intellectual powress, Feynman is no different than another other human beings.  He had his successes and failures, his achievements and disappointments, his friends and enemies, and his mentors and rivals.  His willingness to tread unknown territories (e.g., painting, biology, and his revamped lecture notes) was also something that is now missing in to-day's academia.  Though he is not known for siring new generations of academics, his influence is perhaps more far reaching.  He was the reason I started doing my PhD in the first place.