I agree that reading up on a person of that type might be very entertaining, and might or might not provide some good training/planning information. But I hesitate to use the term "hero" to describe one who is living the life they chose. I feel that the term hero is badly overused these days. To call a sports figure a "national hero" drives me nuts. He/she is simply a person who is very good at what they do, and usually highly overpaid. To call firemen and policemen heros for doing the job they were hired and trained to do is the same. Heros are few and far between...