Hang Up Your Cape
Bjarne Riis, Mother Teresa, Elon Musk, and the everyday heroes who never get a cape.
You bought the Tesla, and a few years later you put the sticker on it. Somewhere in between, the hero stopped being a hero.
Bjarne Riis flew home from his 1996 Tour de France win on a private jet with a Royal Danish Air Force escort. Eleven years later he offered to hand back the jersey and admitted he had been doping throughout. Inside the sport his nickname was already Mr 60%, a joke about his red blood cell count. Everybody knew. Nobody wanted to.
The conversation moves from Riis to Mother Teresa to Musk, Jobs and Gates, and lands on an uncomfortable suspicion. Perhaps the dark side isn't a flaw in exceptional people. Perhaps it's the entry fee.
When the pedestal collapses, who is actually to blame: the person standing on it, or the people who built it?
