Imitation is Suicide. Insist on yourself, never imitate. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Great advice, unless you’re just getting started. Then it’s probably a good idea to imitate. So say Zinsser, Pressfield and King. Like the blacksmith’s apprentice striking behind the master’s blow, in our novice years we need a guide. As we gain experience the guide falls away and we come into our own. To continue in imitation after this point is to engage in the self-destruction Emerson warns against.
The point of the larger passage from which the quote is taken is that each of us is uniquely prepared to produce results “on that plot of ground which is given [us] to till”. The sum of our talents and experience is distinct from any other person’s. You are the only you this world had. If you do not fill the role you’ve been given, no one will. Please play your part well.
Photo Credit: Derek Key
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