Legends never die." ~ Babe Ruth 2016 sucked for celebrity deaths, we all know. The headlines are everywhere. Here's a list if you want to remember how bad it was. But what gets lost in the shuffle is that for some people, a piece of their childhood died too. Sure, Prince might not have been everyone's favorite singer, but for some people he was THE person who turned them onto music. I never was a boxing fan, came in at the back end of Tyson so I only understand the importance of Ali in the historical context. But for other people, he was THE reason they got into fighting, got into any sport. He was THE inspiration they needed to stand up (or sit down) against the war. Focus: Who are your legends? Living or dead, explain who inspired you in what genres/categories, and tell us a little about what made them legends to you. Alt. Focus: Who of the current sports stars, musicians, actors, scientists or otherwise "heroes" of today do you think will become legends? Make a quick argument for what they're doing that will put them in the history books.
I don't have too many. They include: Fred Rogers Jim Henson Bob Ross These folks seemed to be not only successful and influential but also decent people outside of their celebrity status. There are a lot of people who achieve great success and influence only to totally shit up their personal lives. Steve Jobs (and now Elon Musk) show up on a lot of people's lists of heroes or legends buy by all accounts they're hugely successful douchebags. Takes a special person to balance it all out.
It's funny... I've never heard of Musk being known as a douche bag... why do you think that? From everything I've heard he's a smart, nice guy who doesn't suffer fools, and is quick to limit his interaction with them. He's known for having a short temper with insufferable and stupid reporters, but everything I've heard about him from people who actually work with him say he's a good guy... light years ahead of Jobs in the personality and likeability arenas.
Between his name, him being foreign, the fact that he's founded one company called SpaceX and another that makes electric cars, I think people simply assume he's a smug asshole. I think he may be the closest thing we have to a Bond villain in real life.
Yep. I also think he's geniunely far more concerned with results and future progress than PR or marketing shine. And in this era of charming bullshit from heads of industry, that unnerves people. Look at Jobs, a tyrannical asshole who managed to convince people that he was the sole reason for a company's success for 2 decades and was deified for it. I know there are a lot of people who don't like Musk because experimental think tanks like Tesla and Solar City aren't normally publicly traded companies, so people get annoyed when they get to see the inner workings of long term products, which aren't always rosey and grand, and then assume he's a bullshit artist or something.
I gotta go with Musk as well. My dad is skeptical of him, likes to mention he made a lot of his wealth on Paypal. I see what he's doing with Space X and other ventures and I'm kind of amazed at how much he's accomplished at relatively young age and I admire his ambition and his ability to come up with novel, commercially viably solutions to problems we face.
If you haven't seen this, I think it captures his spirit very well... The dude has dreams, and isn't letting anyone get in the way of them. I respect the hell out of that... both the man, and his accomplishments.
I have a lot of heroes for a lot of different areas of my life. To pick and choose from a couple: I think if I had to pick my biggest hero/role model for writing, it would be Nora Ephron. She had the greatest career and got to do it all - reporter, magazine writer, essayists, playwright, novelist, screenwriter - all while balancing writing things that could reach a wide audience while also being respected. She had this great life about town, never stopped being a complicated woman but was still generally liked. I also really, really love Roxane Gay. Not only do I think she's an amazing writer, but I think she's one of the greatest thinkers of our time and is such a perfect voice for modern feminism. I just love that she can seamlessly transition between flawlessly executing some deep philosophical theorizing about the state of race relations to giggling about how much fun Magic Mike is. She makes it all seem so much more accessible. Silly as it sounds, I also have a strong love for Beyonce. I just think she's the perfect woman. She's talented, confident, strong, fun, an incredible businesswoman. She balances flaunting her sexuality and being a romantic and caring about family in her image perfectly. She's unafraid to be political. She's beautiful in a way that easily transitions from being very sexy to very sophisticated to very cute to very pretty. She's a goddamn robot prototype that escaped a lab somewhere to make the rest of us look bad. I also think she'll be a legend, historically. Michelle Obama is a huge role model of mine - just another amazing woman full of class and grace and strength and smarts. Also a legend. For more on the personal legends side of things, I try and be a bit more like Marlene Dietrich every day. I am so happy I've gotten to see Gloria Steinem speak twice now, and think she's incredible. I am probably more sad than I should be about Alexander McQueen ending his life so early so that we only got to experience his genius for such a short amount of time. Anna Wintour is another legend (although Debbie Stoller is more of a hero). Patti Smith is another - funnily enough, I don't really like her music all that much, but I love her writing and I love her life and I love her outlook on things. I could go on and on, which makes me happy, but I'll just end there.