Archetype : Hero

The Hero archetype, as identified by Strauss and Howe in The Fourth Turning, experiences --

• Reputation as child: good
• Coming of age: empowering
• Coming of age focus: outer world
• Young adulthood: building
• Trans in midlife: energetic to hubristic
• Leadership style entering elderhood: collegial, expansive
• Reputation as elder: powerful
• Treatment as elder: rewarded
• How they are nurtured: tightening
• How they nurture: relaxing
• Position: Third in the cycle, dominant
• Positive reputation: selfless, rational, competent
• Negative reputation: unreflective, mechanistic, overbold
• Endowments: community, affluence, technology

Today's Heroes are Millennials.

• Born 1982 – 2002?
• 79.2 million in 2005 (U.S.)
• Ages in 2007: 5?-25
• American Hero generations have been Arthurian, Elizabethan, Glorious, Republican, G.I. and (now) Millennial

Books to help you understand the Hero Archetype:

• Millennials and the Pop Culture
• Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation
• Millennials Go to College: Strategies for a New Generation on Campus, 2nd Edition