As an 8 year old McRaven was in New York City with his dad. During their trip McRaven continually looked to the sky hoping to see Superman. His dad asked him if what he was looking for and McRaven finally admitted that he wanted to see Superman. His dad pointed out a police officer and stated that was a hero.
McRaven notes “If you can have an epiphany at eight years old, well then, this was mine. If Superman wasn’t real, then who was going to save the world? If Superman or Batman or Spider-Man weren’t coming, then how would we stop the criminals, the Nazis, the Soviets, the aliens from outer space, and all the violence and destruction? The answer was clear. It was up to us.”
McRaven became a navy seal and spent 37 years in the Navy. He states: “ I came to realize that there is a hero in all of us. There is an innate code that has been there since the birth of mankind. It is written in our DNA.” He notes that each of us can work on developing our character so that we can develop the attributes that heroes have.
The book is a series of short stories that highlight each attribute in the hero code. This is a quick read and can be finished in day. The goal of the book is to encourage each of us to be better than we are today.
Some of the attributes that make up the hero code are courage, integrity, compassion, hope, and forgiveness. Here is one line of the hero code: “I will learn to SACRIFICE by giving a little of my time, my talent, and my treasure to those in need.”
Overall I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.
“The whole world is a series of miracles, but we're so used to them we call them ordinary things.”
Hans Christian Andersen
“Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. It undergoes continual changes: it is barbarous, it is civilized, it is rich, it is scientific; but this change is not amelioration. For every thing that is given, something else is taken. Society acquires new arts and loses old instincts.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
