HERO is a literary term. When a man lives 95 years and goes through fundamental changes in an active and involved life under circumstances that promote that change, he has led an "heroic" life. I don't and can't follow him, just as I don't and can't follow any man. I'm stuck being me, and I'm in my own circumstance. Sorry, but you can't be "here" either, not that anybody would want to be.
Mandela was at one time a bomb-planting terrorist/freedom-fighter. He didn't die that way. He was a politician, but he left office after one term. There was an arc to his life that I find inspiring and commendable, regardless of his politics or opinions. There are so few, I think I will keep this one no matter what anybody says.
Our Apostle Paul is another example of HERO...it's just that he's in the bible. I don't whitewash his errors--he certainly didn't--but there is a sense that I "follow" him, especially since I see him as the the first really historically fleshed-out one of "us". Though the bible is pretty scant on "biography" in general, there's barely a man or woman in there that doesn't have the "bad" side of their works and character in their story.