Recently Danita and I saw the movie “Sully” which is about the captain of the A320 which landed in the Hudson River on January 15, 2009.
(As he was at pains to point out the plane had a “water landing” not a “crash”.)
This, together with some recent conversations with a business coaching client led me to thinking about what being a hero means.
What is a hero?
Here are some definitions:
Wikipedia
A hero (masculine) or heroine (feminine) is a person or main character of a literary work who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through impressive feats of ingenuity, bravery or strength, often sacrificing his or her own personal concerns for some greater good.
The concept of the hero was first founded in classical literature. It is the main or revered character in heroic epic poetry celebrated through ancient legends of a people; often striving for military conquest and living by a continually flawed personal honor code. Examples of heroes range from mythological figures, such as Gilgamesh, Achilles and Iphigenia, to historical figures, such as Joan of Arc, to modern societal heroes like Rosa Parks and Mahatma Gandhi.
Meriam-Webster Dictionary
a : a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability
b : an illustrious warrior
c : a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities
d : one who shows great courage
Dictionary.com
1. a man distinguished by exceptional courage, nobility, fortitude, etc
2. a man who is idealized for possessing superior qualities in any field
3. (classical myth) a being of extraordinary strength and courage, often the offspring of a mortal and a god, who is celebrated for his exploits
4. the principal male character in a novel, play, etc
Putting aside the gender specific aspects (it has now become a gender neutral term), as you can see courage and noble qualities are a recurring theme.
Often we think of this in the context of some dramatic situation like an A320 being landed in the Hudson River after both engines had been knocked out by flying into a flock of geese, with no loss of life.
However, the qualities which make up a hero are often more about persistence and perseverance in the face of continual opposition rather than a single event.
I remember a friend telling me about a conversation he had with a highly decorated Israeli war hero.
This Israeli had stated, “It’s easy to be a hero in the heat of battle. What’s hard is to keep going when faced with the every day challenges of normal life.”
One of the great attributes of a real hero isn’t the courage and bravery, it’s the humility.
In the movie “Sully”, Captain Sullenberger regularly makes the point that he was just doing his job.
This may have been poetic licence for dramatic effect but it seems consistent with a well know comment from him, “One way of looking at this might be that for 42 years, I’ve been making small, regular deposits in this bank of experience: education and training. And on January 15, the balance was sufficient so that I could make a very large withdrawal.”
The incident came to be known as “The Miracle On The Hudson“.
That’s probably a misnomer.
A miracle is something like grass growing, or a baby forming in its mother’s womb, or that there is life on Earth – things we have no way of controlling.
What the crew of Flight 1549 did wasn’t a miracle, it was a group of people doing what they’d been trained to do and staying calm in an extremely fraught situation.
A miracle involves supernatural powers or beings.
The landing of Flight 1549 without loss of a single life (excluding the birds which were the cause) wasn’t a miracle, but something much more – it was an act which was supremely human.
(I’ll get off my soap-box now – I suspect I’m getting a bit carried away.)
Returning to the real message….
Last year, Danita was involved in the publication of the book “50 Unsung Business Heroes“.
(Hopefully, there will be a new edition coming out soon.)
I’d discussed participating in this book with one of my coaching clients and he was resistant.
He couldn’t see himself as a hero.
For me, someone who has a viable business which keeps a number of people fully employed and therefore supports a number of families is a hero.
Every day there are challenges and every business owner experiences the emotion of “maybe I’m better off chucking this in and getting a job”.
But, like the Israeli war hero, they persist, keep going, keep meeting the challenges every day of how to bring in enough business to support all the employees, how to satisfy the needs of the customers, how to pay all the suppliers and so on – the list of daily battles has no end.
On top of all that they work hard to have good relationships with their family members, spouse, children, friends and associates.
Often they are also involved with charity work and giving their time and energy to help others.
This is all usually done without a lot of noise, accolades or recognition.
To me, these are our real, modern day heroes.
Who are the heroes in your life?
Have you let them know?