Hero (37 page)

I would love to do what I’m doing whether I was getting paid or not. It’s interesting that most of our players say the same thing. It’s great that we’re professionals and we get paid well to do this, but we would do it anyway. You’re fortunate to have the opportunity to feel that way about what you do.

MICHAEL ACTON SMITH

A lot of people say, “If I made money, if I was successful in business, I would retire at age thirty.” It just so rarely happens, because the people who have that drive and that big dream and vision to build something amazing are not the sort of people who just want to put their feet up and retire.

I was offered a lot of money to sell
The Secret
film, and at the time I was in colossal debt with no visible way to release it to the world. But to sell my dream was inconceivable to me. It would be like selling my greatest joy and reason for living, and there’s no amount of money that can ever buy that.

MICHAEL ACTON SMITH

I had opportunities to sell this business for very significant amounts of money – hundreds of millions of dollars – but I don’t want to sail off into the sunset and drink cocktails on a yacht. I love what I do. I want to keep building and creating things and working with extraordinary people. That’s what gets me out of bed in the morning.

Experiencing the rewards from realizing a dream is glorious, and every person who fulfills their dream deserves each and every one of those rewards. Most likely you will also be filled with excitement and enthusiasm to continue to build on your success and take your dream even further, now knowing that you have the qualities and abilities within you to achieve anything you can think of. But this is not the end of your story. This is not the end of this journey. There’s one more vital step that must be taken to complete the Hero’s Journey, and it’s this final step that causes the transformation – of a human being into a hero.

PETER BURWASH

Our body has limits on it as to what we can do to satisfy it. There’s a limited amount that we can eat at one time. There’s a limit to what we can drink. However, the ability to serve others is unlimited. People who are the happiest in the world are those who are doing things for others.

Something colossal happens to you on your Hero’s Journey. You undergo a transformation, and through that transformation you are driven to take one more step on the journey. It’s the final step. In taking this final step you become a true hero, and the Hero’s Journey is complete.

The fire of passion that you had to realize your dream transforms into a fire of compassion, and you return home, so to speak, to help those who are disadvantaged as you once were. You know their suffering. You know their feeling of hopelessness, because you experienced it. And you are called with the mightiest summoning to do everything you can, to use whatever means you have, to help and inspire as many lives as possible with everything you’ve acquired on your journey.

MASTIN KIPP

There are two places where a hero gets stuck. The first is when the call to adventure comes, and every hero goes through the phase of the refusal of the call. That’s well known. What’s not as well known is the refusal of the return, when the hero has claimed their prize and they’re in such bliss and such joy they don’t want to leave. But the journey is not complete until you take that elixir of life and bring it back to your homeland and share it with others. What makes a hero a hero is that it’s not a selfish journey; a hero is someone who’s made their life about something more than just themselves.

“When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.”

Joseph Campbell

Mythologist

With all the success and all the rewards you have attained, it is when a vision bigger than yourself takes a grip of your heart that the hero from within emerges. You are compelled to share what has been called “the magic elixir of life” – everything you learned on your journey – so that you will make a difference in the lives of as many people as you can.

PETER BURWASH

Laurance Rockefeller said that you’ll know you’ve matured in life when you understand that the highest position you will ever attain is that of a servant; the person who gets comfortable with that is the person who’s really going to have a successful life. And the key to being able to be of service to everybody is to be very, very humble. That’s your crown jewel. That’s your final achievement in life; it’s the most important lesson of them all.

LIZ MURRAY

When I use my life in any way that makes another person’s life better, I feel most alive.

G. M. RAO

Society has given me all that I have today, and I feel it is my responsibility to return my gratitude and practice social responsibility as a value.

When you’ve completed the Hero’s Journey, you know that without the support of the people who helped you, you could never have achieved your dream. With the deepest gratitude for all you’ve received, and the deepest compassion for people who are still struggling, you can’t stop yourself from giving back and making a difference in the lives of others. This fire of compassion you feel is so great that no matter what you do, no matter how much you give, you just want to do more.