Basically what it says in the title
I remember reading years ago in some chapter of what I think is a Kurt Vonnegut book, that the Germans have a word for someone you meet who represents who you could become, but would prefer not to, and how that person is significant as a symbol and drives you to become who you should be or want to be.
Did I dream this? What book was it and what was the word?
The word you are looking for is probably “Niemandsvorbild,” which means “nobody’s role model”.
It is a made-up word that is apparently sometimes attributed to Kurt Vonnegut, but it probably wasn’t coined by him. It doesn’t actually exist in the German language, but it is still easy to understand.
More common would be “Negativ-Vorbild” (“negativ role model”) or “Antiheld” (“antihero”), although the latter describes a likable but imperfect protagonist in a work of fiction.
You might be thinking of Übermensch from Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The term doppelgänger is close in that it looks like one’s self, but it usually isn’t considered the best version of that person.
