Who are your heroes?

Einstein, Jules Verne, and Beethoven are just a few of a hundred personal heroes I admire.

What is it about our heroes that we admire so much, in any endeavor or arena? Well, apart from what they accomplish, I believe it has to do with “making it,” rising up, overcoming, and delivering on the promise of human potential.

But success is owing to opportunity. So, I awoke from a scary dream in which I never read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, or heard Beethoven’s 8th Piano Sonata, or was taught the equation called E=mc2.

What if all these men existed, lived, and then died, and we never knew about it. Our lives would be so much less (ignorant of what we had missed, I grant you). But in each of these men’s lives, somebody noticed them, gave them “a break,” and that propelled them onto a platform where their ideas could shape our world.

In 1782, before the age of 12, Beethoven published his first work: 9 variations, in C Minor, for Piano. And the following year, in 1783, Gottlob Neefe wrote in the “Magazine of Music”, about his student: “If he continues like this he will be, without doubt, the new Mozart”. But it wouldn’t be until the age of thirty (some 18 years later) that Beethoven’s first symphony would be performed.

In 1905, at the age of 26, Einstein publishes four papers while working as a patent clerk (one of which included the now famous E = mc2) and then waits for almost three full years before being recognized by scientific academia for his theories, and accepting a job as a physics professor at the University of Zurich.

At the age of 35, Jules Verne met Pierre-Jules Hetzel, one of the most important French publishers of the 19th century (having published Victor Hugo, George Sand, and Erckmann-Chatrian, among others). Hetzel helped Verne revise and publish Cinq semaines en ballon (Five Weeks in a Balloon) in 1863 (a manuscript that had been previously rejected several times).

At some crucial juncture in each of these men’s lives, an opportunity blossomed that delivered them where they needed to go? Almost always, these opportunities evolved out of friendships and relationships with other people.

But what if they hadn’t? What if the universe hadn’t supplied these men opportunities? Without these manifestations of opportunity, these men would have been devoid of an outlet for their creativity, and we would all be a lot poorer human beings.

If you think about it, just how narrow was that window of chance in all three stories? It’s the difference between Michael Jordan in the NBA for all to enjoy, and Michael Jordan on a playground blacktop for a few to enjoy.

But what really scared me about my dream was the awakening thought that there may be millions of Einsteins, Beethovens, and Jules Vernes that we’ve never known (and will never know) simply because opportunity doesn’t grace them.

I hate to unravel the Darwinian security blanket that assures us that cream rises to the top, and through natural selection, we are guaranteed to see our heroes ascend the firmament of mere mortals (and by extension, never be robbed of their brilliance).

But does the universe waste?