Hero (33 page)

PETER BURWASH

At the end of 1968, when I was on the tennis tour, I didn’t have any money left. I was playing with Issy Sharp, founder of Four Seasons Hotels, and he said, “What are you going to do?” I said, “I don’t know, maybe I’ll go back to teach school.” And he said, “What do you need to stay on the tour?” I said, “Two world air tickets at $1,800 each. That $3,600 will allow me to stay.” The next day I went down to his office and he reached across the table with a $3,600 check and said, “Good luck.” That turned my life around. That was a very, very integral part of being able to stay on the tour, which allowed me to get a good world ranking. And everything else was history after that.

MASTIN KIPP

I was couch surfing, living in an 8 x 8 feet pool house in my ex-girlfriend’s parents’ house. The Daily Love was my hobby, but I had just decided to do it full time. After a month of tweeting, emailing, being all in, and dealing with massive uncertainty, Kim Kardashian tweeted to over 2 million people to follow my Twitter handle. I’ll never forget that moment. Overnight we went from 1,000 to 10,000 followers. I felt the presence of the divine urging me to keep going.

Layne Beachley’s big dream was to become the world’s best female surfer, and to do that she had to beat the world record of four consecutive world titles. Layne was competing in the final event of the year for her fourth world title. The athlete with the highest points accrued over several events in the year wins the world title, and going into the final event of the year Layne was leading in points and her fourth world title was within her grasp.

LAYNE BEACHLEY

It was 2001, and it was the final event of the year. I was in the quarterfinals and I fell on my last wave, which cost me the heat and which potentially cost me my fourth consecutive title. I felt like I had let the whole world down. I was so deeply devastated because my ultimate goal was to match and then beat the current record, which was four consecutive world titles.

Layne needed a miracle. Several of Layne’s competitors now had an opportunity to overtake Layne’s total points and claim the world title if they won the contest that day.

LAYNE BEACHLEY

Pauline Menczer, the 1993 world champion, walked past me and said, “Don’t worry, we’ve got this covered.” She wanted to see me win that world title. She went on a rampage to demolish the competition, preventing anyone the opportunity to claim the world title. Pauline went on to win the contest, and handed me my fourth consecutive world title in the process. She had really poor eyesight and couldn’t afford eye correction surgery, so I decided to pay for her eye correction surgery as a thank you.

Layne Beachley went on to win six consecutive world titles.

LIZ MURRAY

When my life story was printed in the New York Times, I learned a lot about someone being a hero. All these people from my community showed up at my school, and they were all there to help me. I didn’t know them. In their arms they were carrying baked brownies, clothing out of their closets, and gift packages for college, and they were just standing there like a band of angels. I had been homeless; they paid rent on an apartment. They built beds to sleep on. They turned on the lights. They filled up the refrigerator. Everybody was wonderful in their own way, but there was this one lady. She came about three weeks after that group of people, and she immediately shook my hand in front of my school, introduced herself, and apologized to me. I asked her for what, and she said, “Because I read about you in the New York Times, I pinned the article on my refrigerator, and every day I tell myself I’m going to help you. But then I’m, ‘Oh, no time, no money – can’t do it.’ Well, sweetheart, this morning I was doing my laundry and it dawned on me. Liz must have some laundry.” And that’s when I realized she was standing in front of this minivan. She looked at me and said, “Well, do you have some laundry?” We went and got my clothes, and she cleaned them once a week every week. She told me, “I can’t do much, but I can do that.” And if everybody on this planet would get that lesson – I can’t do much, but I can do that. I learned that you can help other people in small ways that are available to you right this second. If we all lived that way, you would see a shift in the thinking on this planet.

ANASTASIA SOARE

Unless you want to wake up and do the same thing every day, you need to be a fighter. You need to be a warrior if you want to make a difference, if you want to be significant. I wanted to be significant. I wanted to do things that would change my life, and would change people’s lives. I cannot be ordinary.

MICHAEL ACTON SMITH

It was tough. It took months for the business to really get going. We weren’t making much money. Hardly anyone knew about the Internet back in 1998, so we had barely any customers buying our products. One of our friends would order from us every month under a fake name just to give us the bit of confidence to cheer us along to keep going. We were close to giving up.

On the Hero’s Journey there is a final challenge you will face before the reward of success, and the size of that final challenge is determined by the size of your dream. This final challenge has been called the Supreme Ordeal. It can appear like the death of your dream, but when you arise out of it, your dream is born.

MICHAEL ACTON SMITH

That’s the classic Hero’s Journey, isn’t it? Reaching a complete dead end, all hope is almost lost, and then you turn it around. It would be boring if we hit it out of the park straight away and never have to strive or struggle.