Meeting a hero can be a powerful, life-changing experience. A hero is a symbol of the resilient human spirit; a inspiration sign of our inner potential. As the old adage goes, “If they can do it, so can I!” A hero is a personal symbol of tenacity, courage, talent, wisdom, and hope. A hero is a spirit guide, and everyone has one.

Ask yourself who some of your living heroes are. It might be an author, an entertainer, a parent, a teacher, an activist, a public speaker, yes, even a politician. Imagine the world of knowledge that we could learn from these creative destroyers who conquer the denizens of mediocrity.

So, let’s think about it.

Think of a hero of yours who is in the public eye.

Go ahead….I’ll wait.

Got it?

Okay, here’s the million dollar question:
If you could ask your hero only one question, what would it be?

Take your time.

Got the question?

Good.

A bit of caution about your question. The more honest it is, the more you reveal about your inner self (some people have a hard time facing the truth).

I love asking people this. Oftentimes, the question you’d ask a hero may mirror an inner need or insecurity in your own life. It might, perhaps, be a recurring obstacle or great challenge that you may struggle with day in and day out and subconsciously seek guidance to address.

Sometimes we seek answers from those who battle similar demons. Th

There is great wisdom in the world; some of which can only emerge in the form of live conversations. There are storytellers whose souls can not be captured in a blog post or 140 character tweet. It’s undoubtable to me that what lies ahead for us on the information superhighway is a better way to tap into a true dialogue; a personal, yet collective experience. A human experience. There’s a limit to how much of the human spirit can be relayed in text; and it’s certainly more than 140 characters.

The wonderful thing about VOKLE is that we can finally have a conversation with our heroes. We can begin to realize that they are no longer infallible deities, but mere mortals with their own flaws and endearing eccentricities. We rip away the facade–the PR bullshit– to reveal a mutual human fragility that is both heartwarming and empowering. The fan is no longer a fanatic; the hero is no longer a god.

We are just human beings sharing and caring for one another. We become, if only for that brief exchange, friends and equals. Hopefully, the takeaway from this new generation of dialogue can be inherently enlightening. The world is getting a whole lot smaller, isn’t it?

In sum, I am thrilled to reveal a big push today.

Effective this month, VOKLE will become one of the first (and perhaps only?) platforms on the web that spotlights the incredible opportunity to share a dialogue with your hero. The fronptage will be revamped in the coming weeks to better reflect this focus, so stay tuned. Furthermore, we’re enlisting the help of the community in deciding who we will bring to the platform for these public townhalls.

Want to speak to Nelson Mandela? We’ll soon have a mechanism to vote him up. If Nelson gets enough votes, we’ll reach out to him.

Want to pick Noam Chomsky’s brain for an evening? Vote him up.

Want to tell off Michael Arrington? Vote.  ;p

You decide.

All the while, the platform will still, as always, remain completely open to anybody to broadcast.

After all, you, yourself may one day become a hero to many.

So, inspire us…

…or be inspired.

That’s the name of the game in 2010.

Designing the new frontpage.

Gives you an idea of what’s to come.

Any thoughts? Feel free to comment below.

Share who you’d like to see on the platform, and what your one question to that person might be.

- Robert

This entry was posted on Friday, January 8th, 2010 at 3:52 am and is filed under Communication. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.