Nepo-babies, Role Models, and Heroes

Let's choose our distractions wisely and our heroes carefully

It’s Sunday, and “Nepo-babies” are have everybody’s tongues wagging again. What’s a nepo baby? They are people, usually beautiful generationally-wealthy pale-skinned people, who’ve inherited some degree of their career success from their parents. They attract our attention, yet they don’t deserve it. So frustrating! But they’re so lovely, yet moderately talented!

Let’s spin the telescope around, and look down the other end and peer deep inside ourselves. Is there anything in there we could get interested in a more meaningful topic? Could we divert our attention and apply our affection in ways that better serve our better angels? Maybe just on Sundays?

I’ve been thinking about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She has been called every name in the book, but “nepo-baby” just isn’t one of them.

Her career is still in its infancy. It’s already truly remarkable. She inspires all of us to believe that faith and fidelity to values are the core credential for success. She’s launched an meaningful and important career based on an extraordinarily ambitious platform. She’s galvanized millions around topics that seemed impossible to discuss.

Perhaps more importantly, AOC is a reminder to everyone that today’s model of leadership looks completely different than it did only a few years ago. She’s shown us how a woman, a person of color, a young person, and a social media superstar can set the agenda by saying exactly what she thinks. This is the “new normal” when it comes to how people want to be lead in the world we live in today.

Former United States Secretary of State Madeline Albright is a leader on the global stage, a first-rate American Hero, and a first generation immigrant. She was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1937. Albright was a hero to my own mother who was also born in Prague right around the same time.

In this video she is talking about a favorite topic of mine, the intersection of womanhood and leadership:

In my coaching practice I often use the designation “100% certified bad ass” and that term certainly applies to Ali Stroker. Ali is amazing, and at the age of 35, she is just getting started. She’s been paralyzed since a car accident at the age of 3, so she’s been a wheelchair user her entire life.

Ali is an out and proud bisexual. She’s married with a child. She’s starred in a Broadway play for which, oh look, she won a Tony Award. Here’s her Tony Award acceptance speech — trigger warning for ugly crying (yours):

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We could love “nepo-babies” or we could hate them, or both. There’s no right answer here. I looked it up. We’re good.

I want to try to mix in some good choices for who I look up to. I think it’s good to choose up to look up to people who look different and are different than you. For me that includes women, people of color, people with different abilities, and people from different socio-economic backgrounds. I think this helps me have a better chance of making a choices that I’ll be happy with.

Doing that every day seems to be hard for most people including me. Most of the week it seems like I’m going to watch and click on whatever the algorithm puts in front of me. So I’m going to try to be better about this some of the time. Maybe I’ll try to be great about it on Sunday, or something. I’ll let you know how it goes.

For me, Ali, Madeline, and AOC feel like good choices. They are role models who help me consider my own limitations, obstacles, advantages, and potential. Even to the child of an immigrant, the success I’ve earned is its own form of privilege.

I’m trying not to waste my time by amplifying people who don’t deserve the success, influence, or leadership positions they hold. I feel that I’m using that privilege well if I celebrate the figures who inspire me.

I hope you’ll make your own choices thoughtfully, and I’m sure you’ll make them well. Maybe just on Sundays.