Who’s the Hero of your Story?

With the Spiderman movie having grossed roughly $334.3 million, shattering previous opening weekend revenue with a staggering $114 million (Harry Potter at $92 million and Star Wars: Attack of the Clones at $86 million), I thought we might take a look at why Spiderman is so popular.

One of the things that makes the Peter Parker / Spiderman combo such a fantastic character is that he’s so relatable. The shy, yet smart picture-taking guy from high school that’s always chasing after the bus, getting picked on by the school bully, and in love with the most popular, pretty girl in school. And no matter what your childhood / adulthood experiences have been, there’s a part of each of us that associates with Peter.

Once in costume, Parker transforms into his powerful alter ego -- a witty, powerful, wall-crawling, web-slinging extrovert -- another aspect that many of us want to see in ourselves.

Do you know why big stars like Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, and Denzel Washington make the big bucks? These actors do not clear $20 million a picture because they can memorize a bunch of lines, but because a part of us wants to be like the characters they play. We associate to them -- we relate to how they react to events and what happens in the stories they create.

One of the best examples of this idea is the James Bond franchise. Millions of people around the world watch 007 movies over and over again because a part of us wants to be like Bond -- we want to always look perfect, act cool, be intelligent, play with awesome gadgets, and get the girl.

Back to reality: Who’s the hero of your own life? The answer had better be YOU! We all must learn to become better heroes in our careers, our businesses, and our families.

We all have a witty, powerful, influential, “Creator of the Impossible” within us. It is up to us to shed the masks of our fears, our preconceived notions of what we can and cannot do, and our rules about how life is suppose to be.

Embrace the hero within and live a magnificent adventure!

Happy Journeys!
Scott Jeffrey