Hero (5 page)

MICHAEL ACTON SMITH

The thing I have always loved ever since I was little was games. I loved playing. I think it is a very important part of being human. So my big dream has always been to run a games company, designing games and entertaining people.

PETE CARROLL

Even though I’d coached since the time I was thirteen years old in camps and things like that, I never connected that with something that I would do. When I went back to graduate school I was a coach at the University of the Pacific, and that’s when I stepped back and thought, “Well, this is something I could do that’s close to playing football.” And that’s where I really made my first step toward coaching.

Your calling might be something you have daydreamed about being or doing that you thought could never happen for you, but when you think about doing that particular thing and living that life you’re filled with an incredible feeling of happiness and fulfillment. And no matter how impossible that dream seems to be, you are being called to follow it.

LIZ MURRAY

I would sleep by myself in a hallway in New York City. I shoplifted Oreos and crackers, and I would sleep with my head on my book bag. In my book bag I had everything I owned – my journal, my clothes, and my mother’s picture, which I carried with me everywhere. With my head down on that book bag, sleeping in that hallway, I would dream of a better life. And I had this deep sense inside of me that I was meant to transcend whatever this was, not only for the purpose of having a better life, but for making the lives of others better.

Whether you can remember it or not, you have received the call several times in your life already. You might have received it as a child when you knew absolutely what you wanted to be when you grew up. But then society or well-meaning parents and teachers influence us with the limited options of what we can or can’t do, and we shut down our calling and our dreams.

PETER FOYO

Ever since I was a very small boy I was dreaming very big ideas. Long before wireless phones I was dreaming of how neat it would be to have a telephone in my hand that wouldn’t have any wires attached. Wouldn’t it be amazing if I could put a card inside a gas pump and pump my gas? Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could run cities from the sun? I had a vision of creating this great company, making lots of money, and being the best executive in Latin America.

You might have received the call in what seemed like an everyday moment, through something you saw, read, or heard. Suddenly something hit you like a bolt of lightning, and an ordinary moment becomes the defining moment of your life.

G. M. RAO

My mathematics teacher in school said every life has a purpose and we should work toward realizing it because that would be real achievement. This ignited a burning desire in me to seek my calling and work toward achieving it.

LAIRD HAMILTON

My father left my mother when I was very young, and I had to be a little man very early. That forced me to really make a conscious decision that I wanted to be something.

Out of challenging life circumstances, a burning desire arose within Laird Hamilton to do something with his life. He heard the call, he responded to it, and in fulfilling his dream of becoming one of the greatest big-wave surfers, he has inspired millions of people the world over.

For Layne Beachley, the call also came through a very challenging situation in her childhood. When Layne was only seven years old, her mother died suddenly. After her mother’s death, Layne learned she was adopted. Her birth mother was only seventeen when Layne was conceived through a date rape.

Layne’s foundation crumbled beneath her. But it was that critical event of losing her mother that would propel Australia’s Layne Beachley to become one of the greatest female athletes in the world.

LAYNE BEACHLEY

SEVEN-TIME WORLD SURFING CHAMPION

Honestly, what drove me to become a world champion is being adopted. Before I chose surfing, the big dream was to be a world champion in anything. I just had to be the best in the world. I felt the need to prove myself to the world.

PAUL ORFALEA

There was never any doubt in my mind what I wanted for my life. I just wanted to have my own business. Could have been any business. I used to look at the IBM building and think, “I want a business bigger than that.”

Suffering from ADHD and dyslexia, Paul Orfalea couldn’t read or write, yet look what he did with his life. He created Kinko’s, a multibillion-dollar company that provided jobs for thousands of people. In our world of duality, every disadvantage contains its opposite, an advantage; Paul turned his disadvantages into advantages.

Anastasia Soare had a dream of escaping Communist Romania. For almost three years she planned and waited to make her escape with her daughter. Her decision to flee involved great risks, and when she finally arrived in the United States, Anastasia came face to face with another huge decision. She was working fourteen-hour days to earn enough money to support her family, and unless she did something different, this would be her lot in life.