My biggest influences in life weren’t Nietzsche or Steve Jobs, they were cartoon heroes! Looking back, I realise the magnitude of influence that these heroes from cartoon shows had on me. They set me on a path to valuing things like courage , valour, compassion and humility.
Superheroes that made an impact in my life
Not to take anything away from my later influences in life: those consolidated these ideas into more functional guiding principles.
But, without these heroes and their qualities I came to admire, it’s unlikely that I’d have ended up valuing the things I value now.
I came to value deliberateness and a sense of stoicism from Batman. I admired Goku from Dragonball Z for his childlike enthusiasm to face challenges. I looked up to Samurai Jack because he seemed tenacious even when the odds were undeniably stacked against him.
These traits that I admired, I found in more abstract texts in philosophy and psychology as I grew older. They metamorphosed into stoicism, absurdism, existentialism and essentialism.
These childhood heroes goaded me to take on my biggest adversaries – dyslexia and social anxiety, overcome them, and make that path to ascending my limitations sort of my call to adventure. This has seen me teaching over 10,000 students, climbing to the pinnacle of the English language teaching space, and creating a whole lot of value for a whole lot of people in the process.
I wonder if such childhood heroes still exist for children this generation. Do you have a perspective about this?