“Trust yourself. Think for yourself. Act for yourself. Speak for yourself. Be yourself. Imitation is suicide.”

— Marva Collins

Ms. Collins founded Westside Preparatory School in the impoverished Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago.  It may be that this quote was directed towards her students.  Often impoverished neighborhoods are also high-crime, so an injudicious imitation of friends and neighbors who are involved in criminal activity could be quite literally suicide.

Imitation can be beneficial however, if we are being judicious of WHO  and WHAT we are imitating.  Imitating specific behaviors and attitudes of someone who has been very successful could be helpful.  Even so, it is still imperative to trust yourself, think for yourself, act for yourself, speak for yourself, BE yourself.