Who are your heroes?
Who are your heroes? Who do you look to for inspiration? Who do you aspire to? What is it that you admire about them?
While I must confess to being easily impressed by people who appear to be inspirational leaders, I have relatively few people on my list who in some way have shaped my business and professional life. While the list is relatively short, they all have something in common. They all seem to posess an altruistic streak, a yearning for making the world a better place for themselves, the people around them and the wider community as a whole - a purpose beyond themselves. They also seem to understand the importance of self determination - allowing people to make choices and giving them the opportunity to learn from their success or failure as a result of those choices.
My heroes (in no particular order) are:
Nelson Mandela for his leadership and steadfastness in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds and his magnanimity to his captors on release. Even while he was incarcerated there is a feeling that he was still serving his purpose and that comes across very strongly in his autobiography "Long Walk to Freedom
Ricardo Semler for being a business Maverick! Semler is the leader of Semco, Latin America's fastest growing company. Semler took workplace democracy to previously unimagined frontiers when he took over his father's manufacturing business in the 80's and over a number of years tore up the "rulebook" of how to run a business, doing away with hierarchies, involving employees in the decision making process, creating a very open, flexible architecture with a strongly values based culture. There was resistance and there were setbacks AND Semler held to his vision while being flexible about how he got there. In this way Semler steered the business to great success. He tells the first part of the story in "Maverick!
Jan Mattson for having the vision of "a future based upon the deepest human principles, ideals and values". Jan is a succesful entrepreneur who created a successful business with "happiness in the walls" - you can read more about that in my article "Happiness in the Walls". I have had the privilege of meeting and learning from Jan and I share his vision incorporating many of the values and using the tools of ValuesOnline with my clients.
These men have touched my life and inspired me in many ways - not the least of which is to stand up for what you truly believe in, to hold to your vision, to maintain and communicate hope even in the most difficult of times and to leave a legacy to our children and our childrens' children and their children of "a future based upon the deepest human principles, ideals and values".
Last Updated ( Thursday, 02 August 2007 )