But perhaps I should have paid closer attention during that interview, when Child told me he'd never really aspired to become a writer; that he only wanted to be an entertainer. It hinted that Reacher might have been less the product of burning inner passion than of cool market calculation. So did Child's willingness, much later, to allow the diminutive-but-bankable Tom Cruise to portray his crusading Goliath on screen, despite the fact Cruise's stature clashed laughably with the long-established public image of the giant character -- which ignited an angry rebellion among Reacher's most devoted fans. So did my uncomfortable impression, shared by some exceptional fellow-authors, that in several recent books Child has been "mailing it in" (as one of them put it). As for me, I was born into a humble working-class family in Australia. I didn’t have any big aspirations in my early years because I didn’t think big dreams were possible for me. But in 2004, my life changed forever when I discovered a secret, and a huge dream took over me – to share the secret I had discovered with the world. In 2006, The Secret film and book were released, and they swept the globe, reaching tens of millions of people. We don't always know what we want, but we sure know what we don't want. Stop doing or thinking about what you don't want, and move on. It's like, if the train ride's a bad one, get off. You'll never experience anything else if you don't get off that train. Then you leave yourself open to something else. Before we get there we have to listen to (I read the audiobook) a lecture on various arcane items such as the invention and naming of various opioids, the evolution of the Robin Hood myth, etc. All of this filtered through Child's irritating timeline where everything is located in history according to how many generations before Child's grandmother that it occurred. e.g. It is not the mid-Upper Paleolithic Age of 25,000 years ago, but rather 1,198 generations before Child's grandmother. Paul Orfalea struggled through his school years with severe dyslexia and ADHD. Though essentially unable to read, Paul held the ambition to build a company bigger than IBM. To overcome his literacy challenges Paul developed a keen sense of observation, and while standing in a line one day this skill enabled Paul to see a need – for cheap printing and photocopying. From that one idea, Kinko’s was born, which eventually grew into a billion-dollar photocopying company. Peter Burwash Peter Burwash – from Canada

The essence of this book is that we are - each of us - the heroes of our own story, and it is up to us to make of our story what we will. It was intriguing to follow some of the migrations of word meanings, those that make sense and are approved of by Child. And some that He obviously does not. Over all it is an interesting read, and for the price of the eBook worth it. Since then, we have prided ourselves on being the world’s leading magazine for culture and ideas. Our guiding principle for the selection of pieces remains the same as it ever has been: is it interesting; and is it beautifully written? Over the years, our contributors have included the very best writers and thinkers in the world: from Virginia Woolf to Seamus Heaney, Sylvia Plath to Susan Sontag, Milan Kundera to Christopher Hitchens, Patricia Highsmith to Martin Scorsese.”

Table of Contents

Child begins his essay from primitive societies and proceeds by examining the use of the word "Hero" in the stories that shaped its meaning. He traces the roots of storytelling which are older than those of other human art forms such as music, and moreover he stresses the importance of storytelling for humans as something that empowers them as well as consoles them when needed. He writes: "Our official name is Homo Sapiens sapiens, but some say it should be Pan Narrans, the storytelling ape". According to Child, every storyteller has certain aims while every listener has certain needs. The first "Heroes" were nothing more than "idealized examples of desired behaviors". The listener wanted to see his best self in the central characters of many epics, thus creating a fictional, mythologized persona who knew right from wrong, was brave and kept his honor intact under any circumstances. This is your story. This is your purpose. This is why you are here on planet Earth – to take the Hero’s Journey and to discover the hero within you. With the invaluable wisdom you’re about to receive, and armed with your powerful abilities, you will be able to fulfill your dream and find the true and lasting happiness that every one of us so desperately seeks. No matter where you are in your life, no matter what age you are, it is never too late to follow your dream. Part One Chapter One Against All Odds Liz Murray was born to drug-addicted parents and grew up in poverty in New York City. After her mother died and her father went into a shelter when Liz was a teenager, she found herself homeless. Liz hadn’t finished school, was sleeping in stairwells, and shoplifting food to survive, but it was at that time that a dream was born within her to attend Harvard University. Four years later Liz fulfilled her dream, and through sharing her story she has gone on to become a best-selling author and one of the most sought-after motivational speakers in the world. GM Rao G. M. Rao – from India

That profundity appears not at the beginning of the "book," but 75% of the way through it. En route, we are taken upon a long and winding anthropological and archaeological expedition filled with the author's speculations, such as why homo sapiens survived while Neanderthals did not, and much else that had little discernible relationship to the "book's" title and (I therefore foolishly assumed) subject. If you are like I once was and you’ve never considered having big dreams because you didn’t think they could happen, know that on the journey you’re about to take you will discover everything you need to make your dreams – however impossible they may seem – come true.

The book contradicted itself at a few places, and went against some of the ideas presented in The Secret (Focusing more on the concepts of hard-work, competition, consistency, determination than effortlessness, abundance etc.). The narration by Jeff Harding in the audiobook was excellent throughout. If you closed your eyes you could imagine it was Reacher himself telling tales around the fire before heading off into the dark to "get his retribution in first." Yes this is Lee Childs first work of non-fiction (well apart from if you do not consider Reachers Rules) and is also being used as a bit of a poster book for the Times Literary Supplement (TLS). In fact, even for an exposition this slight, Child doesn't really dive down into the topic of "story" until two-thirds of the way in, when he proclaims that "The entire purpose of story is to manipulate." Leaving aside that dubious proposition, he opines that centuries ago there developed a division between the "official heroes" pushed by governing elites, and "folk heroes." He uses the evolution of the Robin Hood myth as an example of how the "establishment's" need for social control competed with deep-rooted emotional needs of the public to shape a given myth to serve its time and place. I had been ignoring this book because Lee Child’s fiction isn’t something that I’ve ever been interested in. However, I recently read David Baddiel’s Jews Don’t Count, published by TLS and realised that this book was published in the same line.

What do you want? Put your hand on your heart and ask yourself, what do I want? The first thing that comes to mind is always the right one.There's nothing wrong with small dreams. Big dreams are for people who are consciously willing to risk everything they have in life. There are small dreams, there are big dreams, and there are crazy dreams. It takes a certain personality to go so crazy. I enjoy the idea, and the book. I do not care for the organization of the book. I started by reading the book as written. I kept losing the thread of the author's words and then each of the individual stories. The sheer cynicism is breathtaking. Child has become extraordinarily famous and wealthy by creating a fictional role model whose courage and ingenuity in pursuit of justice, and in the face of great risks and obstacles, are "encouraging, empowering, emboldening and consoling" millions of readers. Yet now he's telling those very fans, who elevated him to his lofty social status, that the real purpose of stories like his is to "manipulate" -- and worse: that he doesn't really find his creation to be a "hero," but some "nasty" descendant from our savage evolutionary past.

This book is very inspiring and motivating. This book tells us that nothing is impossible. The author uses quotes from others to inspire. All you need to believe in your instinct. I would highly recommend this book and it's worth your time and money. I initially bought HERO when it was first released in 2013, I started it but didn't get very far. Kind of how I felt with book three in the series, The Magic, which I gave away and haven't tried again. Okay that aside this is quite an interesting read. You have Child review the history (in his mind at least) of the concept of the "hero" yes there is a bit of word entomology both from the wisdom of Child and reference to his daughter - but mainly it is the idea or concept of the hero and not only where it came from but more importantly why. For these reasons and more I avoid the word, and distrust the concept. I have no heroes and recognize none. 'The main character in a popular book' is good enough for me, especially if that character lights up the circuits that evolution has wired inside me. I need encouraging, empowering, emboldening and consoling, the same as anyone else. Happily there are a lot of writers who know that...All good. Except not really...There's an unthinking assumption that evolution is always progress...Who are we descended from?...The nice guys died out. By the end the human population was reduced to the nastiest handful...They would kill you as soon as look at you. My ancestors. Hopefully diluted by subsequent random mutations, but to at least some degree, and always, a part of me, and of the characters I like to read, and the characters I like to write." Child then goes on to explain how the concept of the hero changed (often, not for the better) as humans went from being hunter-gatherers to farmers, through the Bronze and Iron Ages, medieval and Victorian times to the present day. He is particularly scathing about how the term (along with that annoying modern cliché “legend”) has been debased in the 20th century, largely by politicians and the gutter press.By realizing your dreams, you will realize the greatness in you. Greatness is not being born with a silver spoon in your mouth. Following your dreams and realizing the hero within you is greatness.