[Barrett]

If you get away with it, you're heroic.
If it kills you, you're foolhardy.
Of course, the foregoing discounts the enormous role that luck (or misfortune) plays in the equation. You can be skilled, alert, smart, and still become a KIA. Over aggressiveness also plays a part, and it only takes once. Voss may be the ultimate WW I example: all skill & fight, I'm convinced he was intent on overtaking The Von since he'd been steadily closing the gap. In WW II, look no farther than Tommy McGuire.
As noted on this thread, there's no way of knowing how many combatants set out with malice aforethought to become Certified Heroes. Among hundreds of combat airmen, I've known just one, and he achieved his goal only to lose much of it thru hubris. The Greeks really had a handle on things: the scriptural paraphrase is "Pride goeth before a fall."
OTOH, I am reminded of the WW II USAAF drinking song: "Oh, those who want to be a hero, they number almost zero. Those who want to be civilians--Jeez! They number in the millions!"