There are some incredible people in the news this week. People everywhere are mourning the death of Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple. His story of failure, perseverance and eventual success changed not only his own life but an entire culture. He was a success not because he made millions of dollars or sold a popular product. He was a success because he changed the way people think, he changed the way we do business. He was a success because he wanted to change the world and he did.
Also this week, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to three incredible women, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Peace Activist Leymah Gbowee and human rights activist Tawakkul Karman for their non-violent, peace-building work. These are women who fought cultural and gender norms to change both thinking and action for women, and all people, in Liberia and Yemen. These women, daily, risk their very lives to change their cultures and improve the lives of future generations.
What did Steve Jobs have in common with Sirleaf, Gbowee and Karman? They all walked the walk. They did not have a job and a separate personal life. Their job is their calling. Their lives are their passions. Their passions are their careers. Their careers are their missions. They have lived the dream in a way that does not involve traditional ideas about what it means to be successful. They have not measured their success in terms of popularity or material gain. No, they have so much more. Steve Jobs got to go to work every day doing something he loved to do. He got to go home every night knowing that what he had done that day changed things in new and exciting ways. Sirleaf, Gbowee and Karman go to sleep every night knowing that they did what they could to change the world that day. They know that what they do matters to themselves and to the people around them. This is a dream many of us dare not to dream, to do what matters, to do what will be remembered long after we are gone, to make things better.
While these people have received well deserved praise and recognition for their lives and the work they do, there are those who walk among us every day who make a difference but who go unnoticed. There are heroes who do things that may not get international attention but contribute to the world being a better place none the less. They may not start revolutions, or invent new things but they are living their calling, they are walking the path they were called to walk and they are doing it honorably.
We walk by these heroes every day on the street and sometimes we don’t even know they are there. It’s these amazing people I’d like to take a moment today to recognize. We can’t always know how hard their struggle is or the strength it takes to keep doing what they do, but they keep doing it, and that’s all any of us can do, isn’t it?
~ Here’s to the unrecognized, everyday heroes ~
The single parent who worked two jobs to make sure the children had new school clothes
The caretaker whose job it is every day to get their handicapped child ready for the bus or care for their elderly parent who no longer knows who they are
The child who stands up the to bully on the playground and defends another child
The woman who stands up to her abuser and finds the courage to break the cycle and leave with her children
The middle aged adult who finds the courage to walk back into a college classroom after all these years
The person who has struggled with addiction and made it through another day, clean and sober
The young woman who survived breast cancer and a double mastectomy and still keeps smiling her beautiful smile
The mother or father who spends every minute of every day terrified for the safety of their son or daughter serving in Iraq or Afghanistan
The person who wakes up every day, in chronic pain from disease, and gets dressed, gets going and does what needs to be done for the day
The young soldier who left his family to fight for something he believes in halfway around the world
The awkward teenager who has the courage to keep going to school every day, no matter how much he is teased and made fun of
The woman who finds the courage to testify in court against her rapist.
The man who takes a job for minimum wage at a local convenience store to feed his family because it’s been two years since he was laid off from his job at the mill
The young gay man or woman who finally finds the courage to talk to their parents about who they really are
The men and women camping out on Wall Street who are speaking out for all of us and saying “enough is enough!”
You don’t have to start a company or win a prize to change the world. Be the hero of your own life and don’t believe for a minute that your accomplishments are any less important than anyone else’s. Tell the truth, be the truth, live your truth. Take a chance, take a risk. You only have one story. Make it a great one!
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