Who Was Your First Disruptive Hero?

Disruptive heroes are the people in our lives who either completely changed the rules or taught us that the status quo needed pushed, challenged or broken. They radically changed what you believe or what you do, and altered how you became who you are.


Who was your first? Way back when, someone came into your life and changed everything that followed. Who was that for you?


Mine: It was the summer of '69. I was 13 and a half, and at Boy Scout camp. Not only did I get to watch Neil Armstrong walk on the moon from Camp Wauwepex, but I also sat at the feet of a master disruptor.





My scout master, let's call him Jack, was a life-long rule-breaker. We were about a mile from the nearest town. He sent me and a few other scouts (all under 15 years old), into town to buy a huge stash of soda, candy and beer, so he could sell it in camp, undercutting the camp's store.



When he learned that I knew how to scale up artwork — (draw a grid on the original, then draw one box at a time on the scaled up version) — he had me create a mural from a Playboy centerfold.



When I got a letter from Lisa, my first girlfriend, quoting that summer's big hit from the Doors, Touch Me, and insisting we get together in between camp sessions — I went to him for advice. You can guess what his counsel was. (Ahhh, the summer of '69!)


Your Disruptive Heroes are part of who you became: Yeah, Jack definitely contributed to my lifelong mantra of "Rules, we don't need no stinkin' rules!"



But why was he my disruptive (and not just degenerate) hero? Because he was also an ex-Marine. And, through him, I first experienced the amazing high of a team acting as one integrated whole, achieving something that none of us could have done alone.



He killed us in prep for the camp's marching competition — pulling us out of other, more fun, activities to create more practice time. He insisted that we learn a Marine precision march called "Four Winds," where each of four columns marched in North/South/East/West directions, did an about-face, and then ended up in the exact same spot they started from.



After we celebrated our glorious win, he sat us around a campfire and made sure we never forgot that teamwork is everything, and the highs we experience in life will always be higher when accomplished as a team working together as one.



From my first disruptive hero, I learned to work around stupid bureaucracy and the power and total joy of teamwork.

Who did you become because of your disruptive heroes?