We all look at them with admiration. Or desire. Or lust, affinity, respect, awe, deference, esteem, honor, etc. etc.

Our Heroes. The people we would most like to be like. The people we would most like to live next to. Become best friends with.

Whatever they do in their lives – give great speeches, create great works of art, write great literature, invent remarkable technologies – we love.

But the things that we see and experience about our heroes is just a very small part of who they are as a total and complete human being. The best of them has been presented to the world, and the boring or shameful parts of them are kept from public view. Or tried to be kept from public view.

When in reality they’re very much like the rest of us. They have a lot of “issues”.

Lack of patience with the spouse? Bad with investing and money management? Willing to take advantage of admirers and followers? Yes, yes, and yes.

When you get to meet your heroes you finally have a chance to peek beneath the curtain of their shiny facade. And what you find is really not all that flattering. So if you want to maintain that “greater-than-thou” image of the people you admire… don’t meet them. Let them live on in your imagination. It’s the safest place for them.

Yes, this piece is about someone I met in real life that turned out to be… not too great. I’m not going to mention the name, but he’s short and bald and writes a lot of books. He was a keynote speaker at a workshop I attended in New York, and when asked for a picture in the autograph line (where many were asking for pics) he quickly dismissed me to turn away and talk with someone else. My pudgy Midwestern visage probably turned his stomach.

When I returned home after the trip I packed up all his books and dropped them at the thrift store.

Meeting your hero in real life runs significant risk of being disappointed. Tread with caution.