On Heroes

“Heroism is the good will to one’s own absolute destruction.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

One of my favourite books as a kid was Myths of Ancient Greece. I worshipped Heracles, Achilles, Icarus and the rest — their feats felt enormous and inspiring.

The modern world exalts its heroes too. How seductive the fantasy is, the one where we pull off the impossible, like a Mission: Impossible sequel or a James Bond story. Heroes get medals struck in their honour, fame, the respect of everyone around them.

But heroes carry, in the most literal sense, a fatal flaw. They almost always “die” right after one of their feats. Sooner or later they take on a risk they can’t handle. It’s only a matter of time and the number of attempts. It’s like playing Russian roulette an unlimited number of times: the ending is already written.

Medicine holds that some people have a weaker instinct for self-preservation. Maybe that trait is part of the psychological portrait of a hero.

Their more pragmatic colleagues, though, don’t gamble to excess. Carefully, step by step, they get where they’re going. Slower, yes — but they stay alive. Think how much good a soldier can do for his society, his family, his country if he survives the war and lives a long life, compared to the one who died young, however brightly the glory burned.

You meet the same types in business. The “heroes” treat every task as a challenge and are ready to go all in, raising the stakes and using any means to reach the goal. The “steady” ones plan more, weigh the risks carefully, negotiate, look for compromise, bide their time.

I once read Curtis Faith’s Way of the Turtles, which laid out the evidence that traders who favour a strategy of steady earnings with minimal risk significantly outperform their aggressive colleagues over the long run — even the ones who, at times, taste a major triumph.

Beware of heroes… Even when they bring fast results, one day they’ll put too much on the line — including you and the whole organization.

“Every act of heroism is the consequence of someone else’s carelessness.” — Leonid Yakubovich

Here’s to all of us — guarding ourselves, our strength, and winning on the longer horizons! 😎