Pass.
"Role model" is a weird and weighty label we in the media seem to adhere to the most unsuitable of people, like footballers, Test cricketers and ... well, that's about where the list ends doesn't it, unless you wanna cram in rock stars, Underbelly actors, Rove or MMA fighters ...
Having written about this subject before, waaaay back in 2006, I'm always on the look out for the quintessential Aussie role model, but it's a tough ask.
Most names people suggest are simply because a bloke is famous and "nice", i.e. he hasn't been caught chocking his wife's sister, vomiting on the small folk, beating up members of either sex, injecting hard drugs, snorting softer drugs or, driving under the influence of our national, legal drug.
And if he's really "nice", he'll also do charity work. Apparently, you gotta visit sick kids to be a true role model. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Anyhow, I've been thinking about my own role models and have realised almost all of them are not famous, rich, sports stars or on the tellie: they're just average blokes I admire for different reasons.
And maybe they're not "role models", per se, but they're guys whose behaviour I try to imitate in some way or another because it works for them.
There's my mate Roider, who's a true gentleman around women and faithful as a dog when in a relationship.
There's Pablo, who just naturally thinks of other people before himself, who's a good husband, a good dad, just a good person.
There's my brother-in-law Lurch, who walks the corporate walk without snuffling up too many bum cracks and seems to remember how to be lad and a larrakin and not piss too many people off.
The also my mate Adge, who always seems content with his lot in life and just revels in the joys of his surfing, his family, and his home.
There's lots of others, but the striking thing for me when I read that list is all those guys are my age or younger.
I respect a lot of older men, but when it comes to people who I observe and try to "model", so I get the most out of my life, it's these guys.
This has been on my mind since earlier this week, when a La Trobe University Media Studies student named Sean Powers wrote a very flattering piece about me on Mia Freedman's Mamamia website.
Amongst other things, Sean wrote how this blog and my books had influenced the formation of his identity.
I say it was flattering because I've met Sean when we filmed an episode of Mamamia on Sky News and he struck me as a smart, honest, thoughtful guy with good hair so, you know, it was kinda cool he appreciated my work.
I seem to have a lot detractors amongst Gen Y Melbournites, who think I'm a yobbo, a dinosaur, and that my narrow, white, eastern suburbs Sydney world-view has little to do with their own experiences.
And that would be true.
However, it was enormously validating to find a smart Gen Y Melbournite who gets what I'm doing and understands that I actually only speak for myself, however, I try to do it as honestly as possible in the hope it resounds with others.
Sean never actually says in his piece that I'm a role model for him - the person who loaded his copy into the Mamamia website seemed to think so, however - but his article did make me reflect that the term "role model" get misused a lot.
I frankly think it's impossible for some dude who kicks a ball around a park to be a role model for young men, except as a sportsman.
Yet we shovel all this pressure and expectation onto guys who are usually just kids themselves, then sit back and say "well, that's the role modelling taken care of, pass us a beer will ya."
The fact is, we're all role models - good and bad - for someone in our life, but a lot of us don't realise it.
Sam de Brito's latest novel Hello Darkness is in bookstores now. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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