Last night I saw the new movie Hercules with Duane "The Rock" Johnson. While it was fun to watch, there was an emphasis on how Hercules was really a man, but that through story-telling, he became more of a myth - some even called him "the son of Zeus". He allowed those legends to grow around him to strike fear into the hearts of his enemies which would cause them to question their own ability to have victory in battle - hence they would be beat first mentally/spiritually and then it would be easy to conquer them physically.
There are a few "take-aways" from this movie that I have pondered since watching it:
1. There is really only one true Hero. That is Jesus Christ.
2. People who claim to be heroes, or mentors, or gurus, or persons who are famous and want others to follow them (generally through some type of paid subscription) are not the types of heroes you should be aspiring to be like. Instead, you should look to examples of those in the scriptures as to how you should pattern your life like, or in some cases, not like.
While there are many good things you can learn from others, you should always seek the truth (Moroni 10:5-6 "And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things. And whatsoever thing is good is just and true; wherefore, nothing that is good denieth the Christ, but acknowledgeth that he is.") Remember though the first part of this - by the power of the Holy Ghost - you must receive and keep the Holy Ghost with you in order to know the truth of all things. That is easier to say than to do. A true hero must search, ponder, and pray (meaning taking both quantity and quality of time with the Lord) to learn the words of Christ.
Never allow any man (or woman) to become an "idol" to you, whether it's Beyonce, or a famous sports star, a president of a nation, or even the President of the Church. Only Christ should occupy our hearts and minds to that extent. All others, unless they are pointing you to Christ directly, are not worthy of such veneration and worship. And let me clarify, even those who do properly point you to Christ are not worthy of such veneration and worship (nor would they want it! because they recognize that only One is worthy).
I guess my main point is that while it is proper to show respect to those who have done or accomplished amazing things in this life, you need to be cautious not to allow that to become hero worship or idol worship. Even in the movie Hercules, one of the interesting things was that it was never Hercules who boasted of his own accomplishments, it was always those around him. And while that was good, I recognize that a true hero (in the broadest sense of the word) should always want to point you to the Hero of heroes, King of kings, and Lord of lords. He or she would never want to take honor to themselves. In fact, didn't the True Hero do just that? (Moses 4:2)
