Who are your heroes?

Think of a hero. Your hero.
Now think of why they are your hero.

Challenge yourself. Make sure they really are your hero. Then think of two more for a total of 3.

• Someone in your life
• A Historic Figure
• A Superhero, musician, anything you are passionate about

Everyone needs a hero and everyone has them even if they don’t call them that.

A hero isn’t someone that looks cool or someone that you think you want to be. A hero is someone that you know quite a bit about. Someone you look up to not because they are rich, good looking or gets all the girls. Someone that shares your values.

My heroes

Winston Churchill
The person most responsible for defeating Naziism and everything it stood for. This man went through struggle all his life, found success, fell down, warned the world of Adolf Hitler, and came back to defeat him when the world needed it most. While he has baggage as heavy as anyone’s, he stood for something, he had integrity, and courage as much as ever there was such a thing. The catalog of Churchill quotes are as powerful at inspiring us to act as was his personality.

Dave Grohl
Dave Grohl is an outlier, an outlier in the Malcolm Gladwell sense.  He shaped Nirvana’s music, grew tremendously from that experience, and probably kept Kurt Cobain alive and focused longer than anyone else. When his friend, business, and musical partner committed suicide effectively killing Nirvana, Dave found a way to stand up and reinvent himself. Foo Fighters is arguably bigger than Nirvana ever was and after a 25+ year career in music he has shaped a branch of popular rock in a way that nobody else can claim. He’s also been able to do it while being  what sounds like a pretty good guy. The guy broke his leg at a show in Sweden and finished his set, his commitment is impenetrable. Dave’s creative brilliance, resilience, and renaissance persona is as inspiring to me as his music is.

My friend Terry
I’ve known Terry for more than half of my life. He knows me as well as anyone. He built a company,  and showed me passion and perseverance early on in my career. He gave me my first real job – the copy room, then moved me up to shipping and gave me my first real career shot – marketing. I worked closely with him on marketing his company and vision.  To this day he is a mentor and a friend. We volley questions and advice like master tennis players as we dig into each other’s careers, business, politics, history, and more. He has taught me to work hard, think smart, and give back. Not sure where I’d be without some of his advice over the years.

Heroes are important, whether you identify them as such or not. They teach us, inspire us, and ultimately shape our worldview.

Who are your heroes?