Steve at Catholicism, Spirituality & Holiness posted the following quote:
“Unhappy the land that has no heroes,” says a character in a Bertolt Brecht play. “No,” replies another. “Unhappy the land that needs heroes.” It’s time to bring management and leadership back down to earth.
Now, I am no where near qualified to be published in the Harvard Business Review, but this quote is typical of our postmodern world’s skepticism and rigid extreme individualism. A postmodern world that does hold virtue and humilty in very high esteem either.
I do not remember where I heard this story, but some student was interviewing several people about their heroes for some class. He went to this one older person whom he respected and asked him who were his heroes.
The man replied, “Well. I think I am probably like most other people. I have lots of heroes. First off, there is my father because…. I had this one uncle….” And went on describing several other people.
The student smiled through the whole interview. At the end, the man asked him how did he compare with the other people he had interviewed. The student replied, “You have are the last one on my list. And you were the only one to tell me about your heroes. No one else seemes to have any.”
It seems to me that a certain measure of humilty is required to have a hero. Do you have any?