Is a Hero Made or Born?

Heroes, heroes, heroes, so often on my mind. Every time I think of a new story idea, it is usually the hero who speaks to me first. Many of us writers use the term "hero" to describe our leading men, but are they heroes because we create them, or were they heroes already and we simply opened our imaginations enough to realize they were waiting to be born into our stories?

Is a hero made or born? What makes any one hero special for a specific story?

I don't know how it works for all writers, bu...