What Makes A Hero?

A man once said to me i could be my own hero. He was right. I started thinking about such a statement when i was asked, what makes a hero?

Now, it seems to me that in todays society, a hero is the football player who scored two tries during a match, the boxer who knocked out his opponent to become WBA champion, the guy who earns a million dollars a year.
No one cares about the five year old who already knows who he wants to be. The teenager who strums his guitar while his mates go off to smoke marijuana or the guy who talks his mate out of suicide and helps him deal with his problems, without thinking for a second about his own issues. These are the people who should be recognised as heros. It seems in this day and age, if no one knows your name, then nobody cares.
Nobody cares about the man or woman who extends their helping hand to strangers without a second thought of it.
The general population today seem to focus too much on the superficial aspects of life. The real problems with the world today are overlooked because people have stopped caring. The average news report these days consists of, this just in, a man dies trying to save his son, two young girls victims of the new date-rape drug, and a man found dead in apartment, suspected suicide and is believed to have no friends or family. But in other news the aussies have won another football game.
Then you listen for the other three quarters of the news about how this country can throw and catch a ball better than another country. Its bullshit. The lot of it.

How many times have you sat back and thought, what can this person offer me? Now how many times have you sat back and thought, what can i offer this person? I bet the first question gets more votes than the second. Interesting isnt it. People everywhere are forever tuning in to WIIFM. or Whats in it for me? A hero is somebody who performs self-less acts. Not thinking about what they are going to get out of it.

A hero is not successful, a hero is significant. The definition of success is adding value to oneself. The definition of significance is adding value to another.