“Powerful people act as their own role models — that’s why they’re so successful”
During his 2014 Oscar acceptance speech for best actor, Matthew McConaughey recalled that a woman asked him as a teenager, “Who’s your hero?” He replied, “You know who it is? It’s me in 10 years.”
McConaughey, one of Time Magazine’s most influential people of 2014, described how he needed a role model for inspiration and motivation, and he found those in his future self.
A new study on how powerful people find inspiration shows that McConaughey is not alone.
“Powerful people draw inspiration from their own experiences, not from those of others,” said Gerben van Kleef, the lead researcher of the study and a professor of social psychology at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. “In contrast, people with less power are better able to draw inspiration from others.”