nihilsupernum
for totally unrelated reasons, ghengis khan was my role model for years as a child.
worldoptimization
When I was 11 everyone in my class had to read a biography of someone and then make a presentation about why that person was a hero, and the class voted to determine the winner. So my mom thought it would be really funny to buy me a biography of Genghis Khan and suggest I choose him.
I was like “… okay he sounds cool, why not.” I made a presentation focusing on his anti-torture and pro-religious-toleration stances, left out all the brutal massacres and stuff, and won.