Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

So, the Ministry of Magic is rounding up the Muggle-borns with magical powers—contending that the only way they could have attained their magical powers was via theft.

Of course, we know how our beloved Hermione developed her magical talents: A ton of hard work!

In fact, she’s a case study for Anders Ericsson’s research on what makes great performers great.

In Peak Ericsson puts it this way: “By now it is safe to conclude from many studies on a wide variety of disciplines that nobody develop extraordinary abilities without putting in tremendous amounts of practice. I do not know of any serious scientists who doubts that conclusion. No matter which area you study, music, dance, sports, competitive games, or anything else with objective measures of performance—you find that the top performers have devoted a tremendous amount of time to developing their abilities.”

But, alas, that’s actually not the point that Rowling appears to be making here. She seems to be falling into the trap Joseph Campbell talks about in The Hero with a Thousand Faces: “But the makers of legend have seldom rested content to regard the world’s great heroes as mere human beings who broke past the horizons that limited their fellows and returned with such boons as any man with equal faith and courage might have found. On the contrary, the tendency has always been to endow the hero with extraordinary powers from the moment of birth, or even the moment of conception. The whole hero-life is shown to have been a pageant of marvels with the great central adventure as its culmination.”

Our witches and wizards, although they attend Hogwarts to cultivate their magical abilities, were BORN with the magic. They didn’t acquire it.

Alas, I wish that wasn’t the case. (This might just be the one thing to Optimize in the series.)

I say we pretend that we ALL have The Gift of magic a la another gem from Peak: “With this truth in mind, let’s return to the question that I asked at the beginning: Why are some people so amazingly good at what they do? Over my years of studying experts in various fields, I have found that they all develop their abilities … through dedicated training that drives changes in the brain (and sometimes, depending on the ability, in the body) that make it possible for them to do things that they otherwise could not. Yes, in some cases genetic endowment makes a difference, particularly in areas where height or other physical factors are important. A man with genes for being five feet five will find it tough to become a professional basketball player, just as a six-foot woman will find it virtually impossible to succeed as an artistic gymnast at the international level. And, as we will discuss later in the book, there are other ways in which genes may influence one’s achievements, particularly those genes that influence how likely a person is to practice diligently and correctly. But the clear message from decades of research is that no matter what role innate genetic endowment may play in the achievements of ‘gifted’ people, the main gift that these people have is the same one we all have—the adaptability of the human brain and body, which they have taken advantage of more than the rest of us.”

P.S. Of course, Gladwell popularized the (so-called but quite right) 10,000-Hour Rule in Outliers. I, however, prefer Ryan Holiday’s take on the math of greatness: “Is it ten thousand hours or twenty thousand hours to mastery? The answer is that it doesn’t matter. There is no end zone. To think of a number is to live in a conditional future. We’re simply talking about a lot of hours—that to get where we want to go isn’t about brilliance, but continual effort. While that’s not a terribly sexy idea, it should be an encouraging one. Because it means it’s all within reach—for all of us, provided we have the constitution and humbleness to be patient and the fortitude to put in the work.”

Here we have Lee Jordan, former public announcer of quidditch matches at Hogwarts turned host of the resistance radio show Potter Watch.

Lupin’s advice? Follow your instincts.

That, of course, reminds me of Emerson’s classic, “Trust thyself. Every heart vibrates to that iron string.”

It also reminds me of some wisdom I got from a mentor of mine when I was 26.

Let’s rewind back to a time when I had hair. (Hah.)

It’s 2000. We just hired the former CEO of adidas (Steve Wynne) to replace me as the CEO of our start-up (eteamz) after winning the biz plan competition at UCLA’s Anderson School and raising $5m from a couple venture capitalists. (I think of the whole experience as my $5m MBA. :)

I’d pick Steve up from LAX where he flew down once a week from Portland.

I can vividly remember one of our drives to our office in Westwood. It’s one of those memories that’s tattooed on your brain. Steve told me: “There are only two rules for business. 1) Business is simple. Keep it that way. And, 2) Trust yourself. ALWAYS.”

Business is simple. Keep it that way.

Trust yourself. ALWAYS.

That’s good stuff.

Pop quiz: Anything you can simplify in your life? And, how can you Optimize the self-trust?

P.S. Reminds me of this gem from Vernon Howard’s The Power of Your Supermind (which is astonishingly packed with wisdom, btw): “No one can tell you what is right for you except for yourself. So start telling yourself what to do. If you blunder for ten years while thinking for yourself, that is rich treasure when compared with living these ten years under the mental domination of another. The only true, honest and enriching authority is the internal authority of your own Supermind.”

This is pretty epic as well: “You know what is right. Deep down, you know. The battle between your true wisdom and the counterfeit wisdom of society is what causes frustration. Refuse to compromise with what you know is right—with what is right for you.”

Here we have Harry trying to recruit Griphook to help them break into Gringotts. (Yet another “impossible” task proven to be possible.)

Here we also have the dominant theme of the book: Our hero is not driven by a thirst for personal gain. He’s driven by love and self-sacrifice.

Now’s a good time to recall the ancient etymology of the word “hero.” I know we’ve chatted about this a number of times, but a quick refresh is perfect in this context. Here’s Christopher McDougall in Natural Born Heroes: “And what Plutarch taught them is this: Heroes care. True heroism, as the ancients understood, isn’t about strength, or boldness, or even courage. It’s about compassion.

When the Greeks created the heroic ideal, they didn’t choose a word that means ‘Dies Trying’ or ‘Massacres Bad Guys.’ They went with hērōs—‘protector.’ … Empathy, the Greeks believed, was a source of strength, not softness; the more you recognized yourself in others and connected with their distress, the more endurance, wisdom, cunning, and determination you could tap into.”

<– Sounds a lot like Harry Potter, eh? I’m also reminded of The Way of the Bodhisattva by Shantideva: “an exposition of the path of the Bodhisattvas—those beings who, turning aside from the futility and sufferings of samsāra, nevertheless renounce the peace of an individual salvation and vow to work for the deliverance of all beings and to attain the supreme enlightenment of Buddhahood for their sake. As such, Shāntideva’s work embodies a definition of compassion raised to its highest power and minutely lays out the methods by which this is to be achieved. It is an overwhelming demonstration of how concern for others, in a love that wholly transcends desire and concern for self, lies at the core of all true spiritual endeavor and is the very heart of enlightened wisdom.”

And Deepak Chopra echoes this wisdom in The Seven Spiritual Laws of Superheroes in which he tells us tells us: “For superheroes, love is not a mere sentiment or emotion. It is the ultimate truth at the heart of creation.”

Plus: “Buddha, or ‘the enlightened one,’ as he was known at this stage of his life to his disciples, proposed that there was a step more evolved than even enlightenment, or personal release from suffering. It was to share with others the wisdom gained and the experience of higher guidance, and in doing so elevate them to the same stage. Compassion in action. Love as the ultimate superpower encoded in total self-knowing and self-awareness.

Buddha called those who had evolved to this stage of sharing the ultimate truth bodhisattvas. It should be no surprise that the word bodhisattva translates as ‘heroic-minded one,’ or in common parlance ‘superhero.’”

And, we can’t talk about heroes and self-sacrifice without talking about The Hero with a Thousand Faces (again) in which Campbell tells us: “The Japanese have a proverb: ‘The gods only laugh when men pray to them for wealth.’ The boon bestowed on the worshiper is always scaled to his stature and to the nature of his dominant desire: the boon is simply a symbol of life energy stepped down to the requirements of the specific case. The irony, of course, lies in the fact that, whereas the hero who has won the favor of the god may beg for the boon of perfect illumination, what he generally seeks are longer years to live, weapons with which to slay his neighbor, or the health of his child.

The Greeks tell of King Midas, who had the luck to win from Baccus the offer of whatsoever boon he might desire. He asked that everything he touched should be turned to gold. When he went his way, he plucked, experimentally, the twig of an oak tree and it was immediately gold; he took up a stone; it had turned to gold; an apple was a golden nugget in his hand. Ecstatic, he ordered prepared a magnificent feast to celebrate the miracle. But when he sat down and set his fingers on the roast, it was transmuted; at his lips the wine became liquid gold. And when his little daughter, whom he loved beyond anything on earth, came to console him in his misery, she became, the moment he embraced her, a pretty golden statue.”

Pop quiz: How’s your motivation?

As we know, Harry is called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice—to give up his life for the greater good. A responsibility he knowingly and courageously accepts.

(I have goosebumps as I type that.)

Alas, we are ALL called to do the same.

Perhaps not in such a literal sense, but in a way no less powerful and meaningful.

Back to Campbell. In The Power of Myth (the booked based on the AMAZING Bill Moyers interviews filmed shortly before Campbell’s death), he says: “When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self- preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.”

And, perhaps best summing up the entire heroic saga that is the Harry Potter series, Campbell tells us: “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.”

All of which leads us to the question: To what have you given your life?

Give us what you’ve got. We need it. Now more than ever.

Sending love and heroic courage to you and your family!