I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism.

In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero?

Simply doing your job, being a decent human being.

A true hero is someone who just kind of shines by

their own light and that light is to be recognised by others. The long history of heroism with me,

Rory Stewart. Listen on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

There are plenty of stories out there of people who tried to make it big in one career, and BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

There are plenty of stories out there of people who tried to make it big in one career,

failed and then went on to huge success in another.

Before he became an actor, Mark Wahlberg, for example, was one of the original members of the 90s US boy band New Kids on the Block.

And then he went on to launch his own rap career before acting.

Well, John Grisham tried to make it in the legal profession, first as a personal injury lawyer,

then as a state legislator in the Mississippi House of Representatives, before he went on to

become one of the best-selling novelists of all time.

Now, we know about those examples, because they ended up as successes, of course.

That's not always the case.

There's no guarantee of that when such a career switch is made.

And it can't be an easy decision.

When you've stayed so much on one career path, it takes a lot to admit failure

or to think, well, I haven't achieved the level of success I've craved, and then to pick yourself

up and launch into another big bet. Now, I'm Evan Davis, and on this episode of the decisions

that made me, a series of interviews from the bottom line team that explores the turning

...