IT’S easy to be lured into copying what successful people have done to succeed. But sometimes their paths are not yours to take.

I went to university with one thought in mind: I have to find a role model. That’s what all people would say, right? Find yourself a mentor, someone who can nurture you, guide you, give you inspiration. I have to befriend those who are already in the field that I eventually want to take, learning from their mistakes and in a sense, copying what works for them.

I was not told that, what works for them, might not work for me.

Take blogging for example. After I had my big break last year (with one of my posts is featured in WordPress’ Freshly Pressed), many people start to visit my blog regularly, and suddenly I have experienced something that I never know I would: to be read.

As months unfold I began to learn the art of blogging more seriously. I started following authors on Twitter, Googling 101 ways to blog effectively, and reading widely. Soon I found out that there are too many “5 ways to never run out of blog ideas”, “7 ways of blog success”, and “9 things to double your readers in 3 months”, or something like that. These blog authors are sharing stuffs that work for them.

The catch is, they don’t tell me that it may not work for me.

One blogger says that slow blogging (e.g. posting article once a week) wins the race, another believes fast blogging (e.g. posting articles every day) is the key. Both insist that the other party is wrong, and that themselves are right.

Well, those things work for them, but then, which blogging pattern should I follow?

Of course authors, most of all other people, have their own opinions. And slow blogging might work for some bloggers. But maybe it doesn’t work for everybody else. Maybe fast blogging is a waste of time, but maybe others who post everyday just literally love to write everyday.

The thing is: certain ways work for certain people, but it might not work for me.

You are you, and you are not them. You came from a different background, so am I, so are they. We might have some universal lessons to be learned together, but at the end of the day, you, yourself have to find out what really works for you.

Remember, there is no one right way to go to Rome.

So go, create your own rules.

Experiment what you’ve read. Filter the ones that work, and the ones that don’t.

Stop patterning yourself to what other people have done, rather, create your own unique pattern – your own road to success.