How to be a Hero: Remarkable News Issue #6

A hero is a man who is afraid to run away. —English proverb 

Few of us have lived through a time like this where the entire population of the world is facing an existential crisis. IMHO, we need to reset the definition of “hero” so that the term is not predominantly applied to rich, famous, and powerful people. 

Instead, the term should be applied to, if not reserved for, men and women who perform services at great risk and demonstrate courage, Here are two examples from the past. First, a New York architect named Frank De Martini and three colleagues named Pablo Ortiz, Carlos DaCosta, and Pete Negron saved seventy people before perishing in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. 

Second, a Japanese consulate official named Chiune Sugihara approved more than two thousand visas for Jews trying to escape the Nazis in Lithuania in 1940. His action was in direct defiance of the Japanese government and created a grave personal danger for him and his wife. 

Technicians, doctors, nurses, and staff of hospitals are the same kind of hero. Heck, I would also say that anyone working in a market or delivering groceries is pretty heroic right now. This means you Safeway, Instacart, Trader Joe’s, Home Depot, and Amazon people as well as people making masks and ventilators.

Today, anyone can be a hero. (Notice how some of the people that much of society didn’t care if they were making less than $15/hour are now so important?) You don’t need special training or have won the genetic lottery. In fact, the first reaction of many heroes is to deny their specialness and claim that “anyone would have done what I did in the same circumstances.” 

According to Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University and Zeno Franco of the Medical College of Wisconsin, a “heroic imagination” can turn ordinary folks into heroes. Such an imagination enables us to “consider how we might engage in bravery” when the time comes to answer a challenge. Here are the kinds of actions that Zimbardo and Franco say foster a heroic imagination and heroic action.

• Maintaining a vigilant mindset to determine if action is necessary. 
• Learning to endure controversy and standing firm for your principles. 
• Imagining what might happen if you don’t take action. 
• Resisting the rationalization of inaction. 
• Not condoning bad means because they may lead to good ends. 
• Trusting that people will eventually recognize your heroic actions.

To this list, I would add listening to your sense of duty. Truly, when duty calls, heroes listen and then take action. Today, more than ever, heroism abounds everywhere around us.

From Our Archives

Listen to Arianna Huffington on Remarkable People. Her focus since she left Huffington Post has been Thrive Global with a focus on ending the stress and burnout epidemic.

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Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist Canva, an online graphic design tool. He’s also a brand ambassador for Mercedes-Benz and an executive fellow of the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. He was previously the chief evangelist of Apple and a trustee of the Wikimedia Foundation. His books include Wise Guy: Lessons from a Life, The Art of the Start 2.0, The Art of Social Media, and fifteen others. He has a BA from Stanford and an MBA from UCLA, as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College. He and his wife, Beth, have four children.