Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You’re only a stranger once.

March 16, 2007

About Heroes and Believing

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 7:14 am

I've been thinking . . .

Late last night I read what Ellen wrote. She was talking about Seth’s piece on thrill seekers and fear avoiders. I read Seth’s post too. I woke this morning thinking about what I read.

Both of them avoided the word risk in the traditional sense. Seth said, “So why not call them risk seekers and risk avoiders? Well, it used to be true. Seeking thrills was risky. But no longer. Now, of course, safe is risky.”

Ellen said, “Thrill seekers move on, learn and live so that new opportunities soon wash over both thrills and fears in colors that open curtains of another Oscar possibility.”

They’re both right, but I still feel the risk — the Steve Farber OS!M of doing something when not doing something would be easier.

I guess, I’ll always be something of a thrill-seeking, risk taker. I won’t risk my life — no bungee jumping for me. The risks that I take are for the world that I believe in. I invest in every chance I can find to prove it’s okay to believe.

Sometimes those angels who are everywhere stand up and invest even before me.

I know some folks who are risking what they don’t really have to make something happen, They are investing in doing a usual thing in a remarkable way, solely becasue it’s time someone did. It’s not share the risk, share the benefit, because those who benefit won’t ever know — actually feel — the risk.

Somewhere along my life, I picked up a message that believing in heroes was naive at best. White knights and folks who do things without thought of gain or glory are often portrayed as fictional creatures. People who cared for my well-being told me that often enough. For them, I tried to believe, but how could I after the dad I had? My only recourse was to decide I’d rather be a fool than live in a world where heroes couldn’t be.

I chose right.

I’m taking that risk alongside those folks I talked about. And every day I watch them and think they are my heroes.

Heroes are ordinary people who have extraordinary values.

And they really do exist. They’re the ones who quietly do remarkable things so that we can believe.

Liz's Signature


Filed under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog |



C'mon. Let's talk!

24 Comments to “About Heroes and Believing”

  1. March 16th, 2007 at 8:17 am
    Nicholas said

    Risk without calculated thought is foolish, but risk is necessary to obtain great rewards. This is the balance that investors talk about when looking at risk/reward of an investment..

    However, life in general is a risk in and of itself… You realize this when you open yourself up to a new business venture, a new relationship, and even driving on the freeway…

    But you don’t make life decisions on risk alone, you also base them on your life goals and if it is in line with your passion, and core values…

    Great post Liz!

  2. March 16th, 2007 at 8:22 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Nicholas!
    Risk without thought is really selfish. It leaves no room for the people who care about us, who invest in us, who look to us for wisdom. And there is always at least one,even if it is one we don’t see.

    Risk for what we believe is sometimes called valor. I like that word. It resonates with purpose and humanity.

    Thank you, Nicholas, for taking my thoughts further. Thank you, too, for telling me what you see.

  3. March 16th, 2007 at 10:11 am
    Mike said

    Liz,

    You nailed it with the “ordinary people with extraordinary values”! Often we can’t predict all the risks of an undertaking; we start and persist because doing so resonates with who we are at our core.

    Mike

  4. March 16th, 2007 at 10:18 am
    Karin H. said

    Hi all

    Always was a fear avoider, nice and safe, well-liked because of that. Then I discovered risk is fun, risk is rewarding. Risk makes ME well-liked, not my agreeing-with-all-cause-it’s-safe behaviour.
    Risk makes you grow and your circle of friends grows in the same rate.

    (Don’t do bungy-jumping though, love my life too much, don’t trust things I can’t controle that much ;-)

  5. March 16th, 2007 at 10:31 am
    Chris Cree said

    What was it John Wayne said?

    Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway.

    Or maybe it was

    All battles are fought by scared men who’d rather be someplace else.

    Heroes move forward when most people freeze.

  6. March 16th, 2007 at 10:35 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Mike!
    How wonderfully YOU said that. We persist and persevere and we make things happen. I’m a lucky girl to know all of the heroes I do. :)

  7. March 16th, 2007 at 10:36 am
    Karin H. said

    Chris, side-note question on hero’s:
    Does having reflexes makes you a hero (fight or flight reflex)?

  8. March 16th, 2007 at 10:38 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Karin!
    I think that you and I should NOT GO bungee-jumping together sometime. :)

    I don’t think I ever had a choice about being a fear avoider. Shy as I was, it hurt to be quiet when there was something right that wasn’t being done.

  9. March 16th, 2007 at 10:39 am
    ME Strauss said

    Chris,
    I can hear your John Wayne voice. I’m so smiling at that. :)

    Thank you for those quote that say it so well. I like the Chris Cree quote the best. :)

  10. March 16th, 2007 at 10:51 am
    Mike said

    Thank you, Liz, for both the kind words and the inspiring post!

  11. March 16th, 2007 at 10:54 am
    ME Strauss said

    Thank you, Mike and you’re welcome too. :)

  12. March 16th, 2007 at 11:13 am
    Chris Cree said

    Karin, I guess it is conceivable that someone could be reflexively heroic.

    Sometimes not fighting or running is the most heroic action to take. Look at Gandhi.

    Me, I see heroism as being about intentionality.

    Sortta like Chuck Yeager said in The Right Stuff:

    Monkeys? You think a monkey knows he’s sittin’ on top of a rocket that might explode? These astronaut boys they know that, see? Well, I’ll tell you something, it takes a special kind of man to volunteer for a suicide mission, especially one that’s on TV.

    (Can you tell I’m a bit of a movie buff? :)

  13. March 16th, 2007 at 11:18 am
    Karin H. said

    reflexively heroic.

    That deserves a ;-)
    chuckle, how do you find those words! That makes you a hero in a some way - I think?

    Like you I believe a hero’s being intentional ‘brave’, when the flight reflex is mentally stopped or changed into fight reflex (or vice versa of course).

  14. March 16th, 2007 at 11:54 am
    Chris Cree said

    I guess it is just easier to talk about heroics in the terminology of warfare because the stakes are so clearly laid out in that environment with death potentially being so imminent.

    And Karen, the majority of the best words find me. Most often the ones that I labor the hardest to find are remarkably mediocre. But the ones that spill out without much deep thought can be quite juicy at times.

    Basically it’s not my fault. :cool:

  15. March 16th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
    Todd said

    Wonderful. Good on ya, Liz.

  16. March 16th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Todd!
    Welcome and thank you!

  17. March 16th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
    Amanda said

    That was great! We were all meant to be a risk taker.

    Amanda

    http://thetimemastery.com

  18. March 16th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
    Ellen Weber said

    Wow - Liz I sense you just saddled up a hero for us all to see here! Seems to me that Don Quixote did the same thing and ir served Servantes and the rest us well.

    You’ve just raised some of the deeper differences between success and mediocrity - and I’ll throw my chips in for the heroes too!

  19. March 16th, 2007 at 10:00 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Amanda!
    I don’t know if we were meant to be. I just know there’s not another way for me. :)

  20. March 16th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hey Ellen!
    What images you give me. Thank you. It’s something special to know that you believe. :)

  21. March 17th, 2007 at 12:30 am
    Mike said

    So Chris, how do you explain the Hans Castorps of the world?

  22. March 22nd, 2007 at 6:52 am
    Who Are Your Blogging Heroes? at The Blog Herald said

    [...] Liz Strauss writes about thinking and heroes at Successful-Blog. Digg it [...]

  23. March 7th, 2008 at 6:18 am
    Be a Believer Today! - Liz Strauss at Successful Blog - Thinking, writing, business ideas . . . You’re only a stranger once. said

    [...] chose right. from About Heroes and Believing Tags: Integrating business and lifeShare [...]

  24. March 7th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
    Business, Women in Business, Business Real Estate News » Blog Archive » Be a Believer Today! said

    [...] I chose right. from About Heroes and Believing [...]

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

C'mon Let's Talk!