Joe Campbell’s Gift: How I came to view the Leader as Hero…and Leadership as Journey
By Paul Callan
Sometime during my college years I picked up a book entitled “The Hero With A Thousand Faces” by Joseph Campbell. Looking back, I am surprised I grabbed it as the book has very few pictures (keep in mind I went to college on a football scholarship J). Campbell wrote this classic in 1949 and it became his signature work as an expert on comparative mythology. It is admittedly hard to reduce a 330+ page book down to a simple summary, but the genius of Campbell’s thesis was his insight that all classic heroes, and all classic hero stories, regardless of time, place, or cultural origin, essentially follow a single basic pattern. Campbell termed this basic pattern “Monomyth” (which I think he borrowed from James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake), a complex-sounding term subsequently simplified to just “The Hero’s Journey.”
When I first read Campbell’s work I was not then clear why this idea of a single, timeless heroic journey path was so fascinating to me—why it so grabbed my attention and intrigued me. It just did. I not only couldn’t put down Campbell’s book but I could no longer look at life, and leadership, the same way I had previously. The book truly changed my view of leadership, of life, and what it really meant to be a hero and to pursue a heroic life.
Then I did something that really brought Campbell’s theory to life in a real, personal, and vivid way: I joined the U. S. Marine Corps (I can still hear my mother saying “You did what?!”). You see…the Corps is an organization that Campbell would have instantly recognized (and I suspect, he greatly admired) because of its living mythology, vibrant legends, powerful lore, and colorful heroes. I had always been fascinated with heroes—be they from mythology, history, sports, or other walks of life, and now I was part of a culture alight with heroes, and part of a culture that expected new ones to emerge—every day.
What Campbell’s insight led me to better understand, and more fully appreciate as a leader, were these clues to truly great leadership:
- The Leadership path, like the hero’s, is a life-long journey;
- The journey is hard and full of tests, trials, and failure;
- Tests and trials are not the inconveniences they first appear, but in retrospect and understood correctly, they are actually the means through which we grow, transform, and become more authentic leaders;
- The pursuit of a heroic life is the only way to become truly successful because, though success has many ingredients, its main handmaidens are practice, preparation, and self-discipline; and finally—
- At the end of our journey, if we’d stay true to the hero’s path—we become significant and leave a lasting legacy, a wake if you will, for others to follow. Great leaders leave footprints in the sand; a residue of example that guides and instructs followers. The greatest test of a leader’s impact, therefore, is simply this: What was your significance? How was your significance shared with others for common benefit and for the enduring excellence of the community?
The true hero—the great leader– is the one who is faithful to the journey. The true hero and the great leader remain faithful to completing the journey and to possessing wisdom and knowledge, but then goes the one and most important step further: He returns home to the group to share that gift. Attaining mastery and then holding the elixir for oneself is not heroic but is self-serving and self-indulgent. A great leader, like a true hero, shares the boon with others. The great leader, thus, is the one who knows and the one who returns. To be a hero, to be a truly great leader…one must not refuse the call to the journey and, likewise, must not refuse the call to return and share the bounty with others and for others’ benefit.
So I thank you, Joe Campbell, for sharing the boon. I thank you for reminding me of the timeless truths of leadership and reminding me to be a faithful traveler on the hero’s journey. This calling to leave home–to depart our comfort zone and pursue excellence as leaders, even in the face of great trial and failure– is best summarized in this Native American legend that surely informed the lives of all heroes and all great leaders:
“As you go the way of life, you will see a great chasm.
Jump!
It is not as wide as you think!”