The World Has Enough Heroes
How You Can be Something Much Better
Hello friend.
Thank you for being here today. There is a bigger conversation taking place on how Soulful Leaders can change the world. Join us here.
Be your own boss.
Build your brand.
Forge your own path.
Get yours, because no one’s coming to save you.
These common expressions sound empowering.
They stitch nicely on a baseball cap. They make for viral content fodder.
But here’s the strange thing:
The people preaching this gospel of radical self-reliance…
all have teams.
Teams editing their videos. Teams running their operations.
Teams shaping their image, amplifying their voice, and protecting their time.
Teams producing their baseball cap merch.
Self-made?
Hardly.
Forget “Self-Made”
It’s not the goal.
It can’t be the goal…because it’s not even possible.
No one is truly self-made.
In truth, there is no such thing as a solo-preneur, an army of one, or a human island.
Success has never been a solo sport.
We forget this because we’ve inherited a myth:
If you grind long enough, dream big enough, or hustle hard enough, you’ll “make it.”
But success has never worked like that, and this brand of leadership will devastate your potential.
Lone wolves might take all the credit, but they almost never do all the work.
The greatest successes in history are the result of high-trust, synchronized teams: people aligned around a purpose, animated by a shared conviction, and committed to something bigger than themselves.
When you study movements, cultures, and legacies—real ones, not social media shorts—you discover something simple and profoundly countercultural:
Heroism is mythical.
Leadership is very real.
And the difference is everything for you.
Hero-Mentality V Leader-Mentality
Heroes offload the work but take the credit.
Leaders enter the trenches and pass on the credit.
Heroes attract followers—for a moment.
Leaders grow new leaders—for a lifetime.
Heroes win the day.
Leaders leave enduring legacies.
Heroes demonstrate abilities.
Leaders multiply possibilities.
This is why, at Arable, we say something that shocks most people the first time they hear it:
There is only team.
Every hero you know has a team. Every sports icon. Every media giant. Every flashy entrepreneur. Every eloquent public speaker. Every film star.
No one achieves real greatness alone.
Even the most visionary among us are empowered by people whose names you may never know.
So if you are still determined to “do your own thing,” I gently offer this:
You may be doing too small a thing.
Too narrow a thing.
Too lonely a thing.
Too inaccurate a thing.
Too faint-hearted a thing.
Because anything worth building—truly worth building—cannot be done alone.
Purpose is not a solo pursuit. Culture impact is not a private project.
Hero-mentality shrinks your life in both time and space. Whatever benefit you gain, you gain only for yourself. The impact is linear and bound to the short time you occupy the earth.
Leader-mentality grows your life far beyond you. All apprenticed by you reap the benefits of your growth and then pass them on. The impact is exponential and echoes through time.
If you want to build something great, good, and lasting, you must find, grow, and support your team.
The ones who rise in the next decade won’t be the lone geniuses, the rugged individualists, or the internet sensations.
They will be the leaders who can look around and honestly say:
“What a privilege to do this together.”
There is only team.
Sincerely,
Karl
P.S. Consider sharing this with a leader who has impacted you, and thank them for their investment in you.