Live in Your Strength

An Appreciation of Ben Wilson and How to Take Over the World

For several years, my daughter Beatrice and I have listened to the podcast, How to Take Over the World, while we’ve driven to sewing class, archery tournaments and other sundry locations around the Greater Louisville Metroplex. My wife and other daughter, Cordelia, also enjoy it.

In each episode, the host, Ben Wilson, breaks down the life of a notable historical figure and what made him or her so great and successful. Typically, over an episode or even three or four, he digests two to six biographies of the figure, offering the highlights and key lessons from the person. In the nine years of the podcast, Ben has tackled a wide range of remarkable personalities. He began with Napoleon, Steve Jobs and Vladimir Putin. His latest episode examined “the undefeated samurai” Miyamoto Musashi. He’s also explored the life lessons of Joan of Arc, Roger Federer, Picasso, John Wooden, Jesus, Mr. Beast, Rasputin, Queen Elizabeth II, and Brigham Young, among dozens others.

Lamentably, last week Ben announced that he has cancer and a very bad kind: stage 4 high-grade neuroendocrine cancer. He has tumors in his lungs, liver, spine and brain. Doctors expect him to live about another year, or perhaps two or three if he reacts well to a treatment they’re planning. Ben is, by my estimate, fairly young – under 40 – with a wife and four young children.

Given this sad news, Beatrice and I want to offer Ben a heartfelt appreciation of his work and message. She and I have taken enormous delight in listening to his podcast for years. We have both learned from it and we frequently discuss past episodes, biographies and lessons. To create a podcast that entertains and enlivens a 13 year old and a 51 year old is no mean feat. We are grateful, Ben.

Let’s start this appreciation with a look at our favorite episodes.

Bea’s favorite episodes, with a short note from her about why she loved it:

Miyamoto Musashi — “I learned it can be very effective to take your enemy by surprise — not necessarily physical surprise, but psychological surprise.”

Coco Chanel — “She changed the fashion industry in many ways, including developing perfumes that contained multiple scents, a real innovation.”

Johann Sebastian Bach — “I didn’t think I would like this one, but the way Ben told Bach’s story made it fun to listen to.”

the Wright Brothers — “The Wrights displayed so much persistence as they went through trial and error for years in their attempts to fly.”

My favorite episodes with a short note on my impressions:

Picasso — Ben begins the episode with this: “When I was a child, my mother said to me, If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the pope. Instead, I was a painter And became Picasso.” I mean, with that intro, I was instantly drawn in!

Ben Franklin — Franklin and Leonardo Da Vinci were obsessed with following their curiosity. Interestingly, both wrote a great deal about their curiosities. While Franklin’s writings made him famous in his own day, Da Vinci was famous for other reasons in his time, but later his writings added to his fame.

Cleopatra — She had a profound genius for personal charm, and sending the perfectly crafted, dramatically executed message at precisely the right time.

Gerard Manley Hopkins — We have only his best work, because he burned most of his poetry. Maybe we have 20% of the poems he wrote in his lifetime. Quantity over quality makes a lot of sense in many aspects of life — writing, business ventures, time with family and friends, to name only a few.

Dracula — I often ponder Ben’s view that before Dracula, the hero went out and did something great themselves. Since Dracula, heroes in stories have been the people trying to stop people of vision from enacting that vision.

My daughter Beatrice told me, “One of the best things about How to Take Over the World is the takeaways section at the end of each biography. The takeaways always highlight lessons that you could use in your own life.” Following Bea’s admiration of this aspect of the podcast, I wanted to offer my own takeaways about what Ben Wilson and listening to his podcast has taught me.

1. Ben was made for podcasting. His voice, his pace, the depth of his research – not too much, not too little – all work excellently in the podcast format. A key question that creative people sometimes underweight is: how do I best communicate my views to the world. In podcasting, Ben found his perfect medium.

2. Related, the podcast name and opening music reinforce his thesis and aim incredibly well. He could have picked so many boring titles: “Lessons From Greatness,” “The Best” or some such milquetoast emptiness. No, he called it “How to Take Over the World.” Yeah — that, that I will listen to. His opening music – you have to hear it for yourself. Beatrice, who tends to be a pretty even-keeled teenager, can’t but help sing along with the historic, moving quotes from the opening number:

3. I enjoy his biography/history podcast far more than many hosted by more academically credentialed hosts. So many bore me with trite details, poor editing and ultimately committing the sin of forgetting the needs and wants of their audience.

4. Following that point, so many of the people Ben highlights had few or no “credentials” – PhDs, graduating from the ‘right’ colleges or working at the ‘right’ companies, and so on. They simply went out and did what they did – excellently.

5. Like Bea, I enjoy the takeaways section of the episodes. But I revel in the stories themselves. I knew nothing about Charlemagne, Constantine the Great, or Steve Prefontaine before the podcast. True, it can be instructive to look for lessons from each person or across biographies. But like Henry Oliver in his examination of people who succeeded when they weren’t expected to, I mostly enjoy the story and striving of the individual person.

6. Back to the takeaways, Ben does an outstanding job looking for lessons across biographies. That yielded some unexpected insights and curiosities. For instance, many leaders, from Napoleon to Alexander Hamilton to Steve Jobs are light eaters. Perhaps counter examples could be found, but his discoveries like this make for intriguing sources of contemplation about my own life.

7. Ben often mentions, and exemplifies, the virtue of focus. No. More than that – obsession. Walt Disney‘s creative ambitions, Steve Jobs’s obsession with user experience; Horatio Nelson‘s determination to do his duty for England come what may. In one episode, he examined how he started the podcast -- for two straight weeks, he woke up and went straight to work on research, writing and recording the first few episodes. He woke up...and worked. He didn’t brush his teeth. He didn’t eat breakfast. He didn’t take a walk. He didn’t pay bills. He woke up and got to work.

8. Ben also exemplifies the potential fortunate serendipity of the internet age. He had a small but devoted audience in the first few years. Then Sam Parr, of The Hustle and My First Million podcast, discovered him, enjoyed what he heard, binge-listened to all 18 or so episodes available at the time, and promoted HTTOTW on My First Million. Ben later became the producer of MFM, but really, Sam and Shaan Puri became Ben’s patrons - funding his life so he could work full time on HTTOTW, and really turn it into something special. Which Ben did.

9. Ben does a perfect job of allowing the biographies shine on their own, while injecting just a touch of himself into the mix. That balance lets the stars shine and prevents them from becoming rote recitation of facts and chronology.

In his latest episode, the Cancer Episode, he remains upbeat, despite the overwhelmingly difficult diagnosis he has received. He said:

“People have asked me, Because of what you do, how has this changed your perspective? I’ve gained even more respect for Friedrich Nietzsche and his belief that wisdom really comes from life and vitality and strength, and not from death and disease. To the extent that I still have wisdom to share it’s because I’m not dead. It’s because I still have some strength in me. And I don’t actually feel like I’ve gained a lot of wisdom. Of course, I do have a new perspective. I do have a new appreciation for the life I do have left, some of the things I took for granted, seeing some of the these moments with my children growing up, not knowing how many more of those I’m going to get. Yes, I appreciate it more. But I just don’t think that’s the sort of thing you can communicate to a healthy person and I don’t think a healthy person should necessarily strive to understand in that way. “Memento mori” – “remember that you will die” – can be … helpful… in some cases, but I don’t think living like you’re dying is very helpful advice. Live like you were living, like you have your whole life in front of you. Be your strongest, healthiest and best self.”

As someone with a congenital heart defect, I completely agree with his assessment – live in the fullness of your life force and strength. Even I, after two open-heart surgeries, do not overly ponder death. I live life as best as I can while I have it.

To me, this is Ben’s greatest lesson, in his podcast and his life: live in your strength and fullness now, today, while you have them.

Bea and I hope Ben continues to have strength and vigor for much longer than expected. We hope he continues to do his work — important work, which clearly gives him joy, and which clearly is his calling. As I think about his role in our lives, it reflects how he salts each episode with a pinch of himself. Every so often, he launches a new episode, and Bea and I eagerly listen at the next opportunity. Over these past few years, he has seasoned and enriched our lives through those episodes. And it reminds me, ultimately, of what Shakespeare wrote of the King in Henry V:

“O now, who will behold
The royal captain ...
Walking from watch to watch, from tent to tent,
For forth he goes and visits all his host,
Bids them good morrow with a modest smile,
And calls them brothers, friends, and countrymen...
With cheerful semblance and sweet majesty...
Beholding him, plucks comfort from his looks....
A little touch of Harry in the night.”

– Henry V, IV, Chorus

Thank you, Ben, for a little touch of you in our lives. We wish you health and wellness, and the zeal of a beautiful life in the days to come.