The Legacy Leader as Superhero

In the 1930s superheroes as we know them today came into vogue. The first superheroes in fact were ordinary humans who were doing extraordinary things. Characters such as Dick Tracy and The Shadow, who despite the wonderful gadgets they had, were still ordinary people. It wasn’t until Superman was introduced in June 1938 that we had characters with powers beyond those of normal humans. Since then there have been hundreds of characters created, all with their own set of special skills, strengths, and weaknesses. There is, it seems, a superhero to meet all taste and styles. For instance, in the early days, while Superman was portrayed as pure and clean, Batman on the other hand was a rough character who saw fighting as a means to an end. Although he did not have superhero powers, he did have a high intellect, a cool costume, and neat gadgets that would put him on par with the other superheroes. The list of characters grew as quickly as the publishers could create stories to print about them. The Flash, the Human Torch, the Shield, Captain America, Wonder Woman, the Green Lantern, Catwoman, SuperGirl, Wolverine, Thor, Aquaman, and the forever popular Spiderman are but a few of the characters that helped create a complete virtual universe. Out of the hundreds of superhero characters, some stand out as the most historically significant: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spiderman, and Captain America are among them. Each of these, perhaps more than any of the others, captured our imaginations and influenced our thinking. The lessons we learned from these superhero characters as we grew up reading about them in comic books, listening to them on the radio, or watching them in television programs and films, certainly have impacted generations of people. We look to Superman because he always does the right thing and behaves ethically in all circumstances. We want to be like him. We love Batman, because he has a dark side to him that causes him at times to “cross-the-line”. However, he always does it to beat the bad guy in the name of justice. We root for him because deep-down we want the bad-guy to “get his”. We all wish we had Wonder Woman’s truth lasso so that we can know what people are really thinking and not only what they are saying – especially our politicians! We love Spiderman because he’s the quintessential unpopular geek and weakling who becomes the cool superhero that every girl wants to date. Whatever the reasons, we look to superheroes to be our role models and to teach us right from wrong. Each of these characters fills a special need in our society to ensure that our way of life is protected from those who would want to undermine it and do us harm. In our society today, we need a new brand of superhero. One who will embody the best of the best from other great superheroes and to whom we can look-up to, trust and admire. We don’t need another fictional character that can magically overcome the laws of physics. It’s not a man or woman who can bend steel with their bare hands that we need; but rather we need a man or woman who can help create industries that can bend steel to make what we need. It’s not a man or woman with a magical string that causes people to tell the truth that we need; rather, we need men and women who will tell the truth when they lead. It’s not a man or woman who can fly around the world that we need; rather we need a man or woman who can unite people around the world in one common goal to achieve a greater good. It’s not a man or woman that is fast enough to avoid bullets and arrows shot at them that we need; rather we need men and women who are willing to take those bullets and arrows shot at the people that they lead. It’s not a man or woman who uses a costume to hide their true-identity that we need; rather we need a man or woman of great character and integrity willing to be humbly exposed as they lead. We need LEGACYMAN. We need LEGACYWOMAN. LegacyMan and LegacyWoman are not superheroes in the pure definition of the word. They do not have special super human powers. They cannot violate the laws of physics and fly under their own power. Bullets don’t bounce off LegacyMan. He’s mortal. He’s fallible. As we will discover in this book, LegacyMan and LegacyWoman embody the best qualities of all the best superheroes and channel all their energies towards one pursuit: to lead in a way that creates a legacy that we can all be proud of. One important difference between LegacyWoman and all other fictional superheroes is this: there can only be one Superman, Batman, or Spiderman. In the real-world there can be many LegacyMen and LegacyWomen. We don’t have to be born in planet Krypton to have our “superpowers”. We don’t need to be bitten by a radioactive spider to mutate into a powerful spider web swinging crime fighter. We don’t even need to be a billionaire, with an anger management riddled alter ego and cool gadgets, to defeat our enemies. What we need to be a LegacyMan or a LegacyWoman, we can learn. We can learn from reading about other great LegacyMen and LegacyWomen, observing them, and most importantly, from practicing their leadership principles. Like other superheroes however, LegacyMan has some inherent weaknesses. Also like other superheroes, it is these weaknesses that usually cause their downfall. Thus, we must learn what these are, and do everything possible to avoid them. For simplicity throughout this book we will use LegacyMan and LegacyWoman interchangeably. It is certainly true that great leadership has nothing to do with the gender of the leader, but the content of their character, and all the other traits we will speak of in the coming chapters. Let the journey begin. The signal has been given. The world needs LegacyWomen and LegacyMen in all areas of business, private and public sectors to step-up and lead. Up, up and away!