Part 8: "In Search Of Heroes Book 1" What is your definition of heroism? by Ralph Zuranski
Ted Nicholas: Well in my mind, heroes are people who are masters of what they are doing and are individuals who have unlimited personal integrity. As I travel around the world, there are not many people who, in fact, it is a very rare talent to have to both mastered your craft and delivered it or served it or functioned in that craft with a sense of great integrity, concern with and for other people. The ones that are the greatest heroes are the ones that are the most help to other humans along the way.
Kevin Hurley: My definition of heroism is on so many levels, but, I don’t think you have to be in the Wall Street Journal or make headlines to be a hero. A hero is somebody that claps their hands when their feet hit the floor out of the bed in the morning; they just want to make a difference.
An old wise hippie told me the definition of an intellectual is somebody that gets up and thirsts for knowledge every day. I just think a hero is somebody that can go out in their community and make a difference. I don’t think it should be measured by money and publicity. It’s about, obviously, how many lives you can touch.
Jay Conrad Levinson: I think it’s doing what you think would be difficult for you to do. Something you were scared to do but doing it after all and doing it well. I think that is real heroism.
Not necessarily courage to be a hero, but ordinarily, yes. It takes a lot of interior courage. Not the kind you might be able to make a movie out of, like seeing someone rushing into a blazing building, but the kind that causes a person to do something that other people said, “Well, you can’t do that,” or “You’ve never done that before,” and doing it anyhow. I think that is a hero.
The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example.
- Benjamin Disraeli