The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

June 3On Being a Hero

The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may not be going to prove one's self a fool; the truest heroism is to resist the doubt; and the profoundest wisdom to know when it ought to be resisted, and when to be obeyed.

Nathaniel Hawthorne—The Blithedale Romance (1852)

Do you ever consider yourself a hero or any aspect of your work heroic?

Of course, the common narrative associated with the concept of heroism makes this consideration seem a bit foolish, doesn't it?

Is it possible that you don't consider the work you do in the service of yourself or others something of a heroic journey because others might laugh at the notion?

Hawthorne's protagonist female characters, Zenobia Pierce, quoted in today's reading, and Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter broke the mold of the common portrait of women of that time and instead presented themselves as confident, strong-minded, self-reliant women. (Margaret Fuller, quoted throughout this work, became the real-life personification of this idea.)

For this, they were mercilessly criticized and laughed at (as was Hawthorne's work initially).

Were they being heroes or simply being true to who they were and what they believed? Hard to tell the difference, isn't it?

Challenge Question

1. What revolution do you need to start today?