I spent the weekend falling in love with Portland, Oregon. It’s a very cool city and I believe I happened to be there on the best weekend of weather they’d had in a decade. What’s not to love?
Added to that, was my attendance at the World Domination Summit. I didn’t know what to expect when I signed up months ago, but it was an experience unlike any others I’ve had. 500 people kind of squeezed into the Art Gallery and proceeded to talk and talk and talk. Great stories abounded. I met a lot of people, but it still seemed like there were hundreds more to meet. Most of these people were doing amazing things. All of them planned to.
In my work, I have found that all heroes have high levels of numerous of the following eleven attributes. Some have high levels in all of them. I was able to find an exemplar of each of them at the Summit.
Achievement
Well, that was just about everyone.
Caring
At the Friday night kickoff party I had tried to introduce myself to Pam Slim, but kept walking away as she was talking to others. I retreated to a ledge to go over the schedule, so imagine my surprise when Pam walked up and said, “Are you the Matt Langdon.” That’s Pam. She makes everyone feel special with caring oozing out of her pores. Oozing in a good way.
Courage
Jodi Ettenberg has traveled the world for the last three years. By herself. People often ask her where her parents are, such is the size of her frame. That might qualify as courage. The courage that I witnessed came through the grace in which she took on the challenge of speaking in public for the first time. In front of 500 people. To call her a natural speaker is an understatement.
Faith
John T. Unger spoke of recovering from massive setbacks. His faith always led him to find the upside – indeed it usually created a slingshot that propelled him to greater and greater successes. This is a man who, in any situation, looks for the opportunity. He has faith that whatever fate hands him, he will emerge victorious. This is vital to all of us.
Humility
Chris Guillebeau organized the Summit and quickly attracted 500 ticket sales with, ultimately, 800 on a waiting list. He spent the entire weekend trying to convince everyone that the credit lay with others. None of us believed him, but he kept it up without fail. That’s humility.
Integrity
Leo Babauta got up on the stage and rambled through a a story that illustrated to everyone in the room that this rockstar of the internet was just a normal guy like us. Most importantly, Leo doesn’t pretend to be anyone except Leo. The internet is rife with people pretending to be someone else. It’s great to find people who aren’t.
Perseverance
Dave Ursillo has sent his book proposal on leading without followers to dozens of agents without finding a deal. He hasn’t let it get to him once. Instead he keeps writing articles of incredible sophistication with an eye for poetry. Giving up won’t provide the gifts we’re all seeking. Let Dave inspire you.
Selflessness
Chantelle Baxter went to Sierra Leone on a four week journey to help the people of that once war-torn country. She hated the first two weeks, crying most of the time. Something made her realise that she was looking at her future. Returning to Melbourne, she started her own organization to help the girls of Sierra Leone. She gave her life to those girls – putting others before her self.
Tolerance
Karen Walrond showed us in her talk that differences are vital. It is the fact that we’re all different that makes us all the same. The differences in ourselves, that we often forget about, are really the things that make us so interesting to others.
Vision
Drew Jacob shared his vision with me. This guy is going to change the world through his own hero’s journey. We need more people who are looking way into the distance, seeing a different world. The best of them can convince us that it’s going to happen. Drew did that to me.
Wisdom
Dave Rendall spent the weekend sharing his wisdom with me. He has a lot of things worked out, but is always working to learn more. Wisdom is not simply knowledge, but the application of it with common sense. I’m looking forward to hearing more from his font.
What Now?
Of course, every hero centres around action. There are no stories of heroes who watched as a member of an audience. No heroes stayed in the crowd. So if you were at #wds, how are you going to take action? What is the first step? Do it soon.
Quest Work: (what is this?) Leave a comment with someone you met at #wds who exemplified one of the eleven heroic attributes. If you weren’t at #wds, let us know about someone you’ve met.
Hi Matt,
I love your 11 attributes of a hero.
The WDS was so inspiring and it was wonderful to met so many courageous people- including you.
I came home inspired to expand on the work I do around flying your freak flag and embracing your inner-freak by offering some free classes. The whole conference anchored me more deeply into my purpose!
Keep on rocking it!
Leah
Thanks Leah. It’s very cool to see the things people are doing to take action upon returning home. Dave Ursillo started his book – just like that.
Matt,
WDS was a conference of heroes. Everyone I spoke to and I spoke to a lot of people had a cause they were championing. They embodied your qualities of a hero.
To answer your question, I raised my bar higher on my book I am sending out to get published. But even more, the nonprofit we are forming – http://www.mencorps.org just got bigger because of WDS.
Thanks for addressing the question Owen. I’ve got to work out what my first steps are going to be. I’ve got a lot on my mind, but need to pick one to move forward with.
I was not at WDS, but it appears that everyone in my google reader was there!
One of the teachers I worked with, who had never taught before, exemplified every trait you listed. He moved to a different country, but we all still learn from him, through his blog posts.
My students are doing a great job so far in including heroic deeds in their everyday lives. They, too are my heroes.
Thanks for commenting Victoria. Glad to hear your students are being everyday heroes. Have you seen my school program – The Hero Construction Company. theherocc.com.