People look up to me.

Nobody sends a notification when they start copying you. There is a person who watched how you handled a rude customer and has been doing it your way ever since, and you will probably never find out.

That isn't a demand for perfection. What gets copied is rarely your best day — it's your ordinary conduct, the way you say no, whether you apologise properly. Someone younger is running a version of you in their head today. Not the polished one. The one they've seen.