You should never work for your Heroes
If the old adage “You should never meet your heroes” bears true, then I’m here to tell you, you should definitely never work for them.
If you google the original warning, you’ll get search page after search page full of people corroborating the advice.
“You’ll be disappointed!” they say.
“The image will be shattered!” they warn.
“You’ll lose all hope in society!” they yell in all caps.
I understand why people say this. I understand why the world warns you not to meet people you put on a pedestal. Let’s face it–we are all human. So it makes sense that if you meet someone you’ve placed unrealistic expectations upon…it’s probably not gonna work out for you.
However, now that I’ve not only met my hero but then worked for her directly for two years….I’d like to weigh in.
Y’all need to get better heroes and stop being afraid to meet them.
Lara became a hero to me not because she was a brilliant recording artist, movie star, or something to that effect (although of course, she is a bit of a rock star in the yoga and PT world, let’s face it!)…she became my hero because she was genuinely a good person, with a good heart, doing good things, and cared about making people light up and be their best. She also knows how to effectively communicate all of that with grace, and never apologizes for her humanity.
Her intelligence, confidence, humor, and fierce compassion for others did not let me down. It has been so inspiring to get to see Lara through life’s ups and downs and model behavior that I would like to adopt into my own life. She’s always evolving and open to change. She takes everyone’s opinions seriously. She values all life. She takes criticism with an open ear and heart and is the first to admit if she is wrong. She stands by what she says–and she gets out there and moves every day!
Does this mean that she is 100% perfect all the time? Of course not! In the past two years, there have been moments where I’ve had the “C’mon Lara!” thought. But you know what–she’ll be the first to admit it. And guess what…I’m not perfect either (Thank God!) and she’s never made me feel poorly about it. She has hard days too, or things that didn’t go as well as planned, or any other of the plethora of things that make us human. But isn’t that amazing? To see your hero be a human, and understand that we are all human. To see how a genuinely amazing human responds in the face of adversity? A TRUE role model. Doesn’t that give you hope? Doesn’t it make striving to be a better person more of a realistic goal?
So please, meet your heroes. If they don’t measure up to your expectations, then wouldn’t you rather know so you can find the ones that do?
If you’ve met your hero and they rose to the occasion…then I’ll dare you to go one step further and work for them, because it might make you love and respect them even more.
To Lara, the LYT Team, and the LYT Community….thank you for the opportunity to work with you. To serve a mission with a badass leader like Lara, hard-working souls like our team, and outstanding humans all around the world that strive to make thousands of people feel better in their bodies and minds has been an incredibly rewarding experience. I’m happy to report that Lara Heimann and all things LYT Yoga have passed the meeting and working for your heroes test, and I am honored to have been a part of the journey.
-Catherine Ferraro
-Former COO, LYT Yoga
