Hello and welcome to how to take over the world. This is Ben Wilson. It's independence day here in America. And I was doing these episodes on the founding fathers of the United States of America in preparation for today. Uh, fourth of July. So I thought I would revisit the series, add some thoughts on the meaning of American independence.

And what I took away from learning about these men who were so instrumental to the founding of this country, by the way, before we get into it, I am having the, by the way, before we get into it, uh, we are throwing the first ever, how to take over the world event.  So of course, true to fashion, it is going to be larger than life.

It's going to be extraordinary. We're going to Ecuador to a place called

we're going to Ecuador to a place called Hacienda Zuleta, uh, which is like an old presidential retreat. It's like the camp David of Ecuador, and we're going to have amazing rock star founders, executives, people who are trying to take over the world in their own way as attendees.

How to take over the world, how to have a greater impact, how to,  we're going to be having, um, talks and discussions and dinner table. We're going to be having talks and presentations and dinner table discussions on how to take over the world, how to increase your impact. And we're going to be doing lots of cool stuff besides that, you know, riding donkeys, hot air balloon rides, uh, all that kind of fun, cool stuff, extraordinary food.

So it's going to be. A great, really fun event. Uh, that's going to be both fun and should teach you a lot. I'm really excited to go and learn from a lot of you.  

So if that sounds interesting to you, go ahead and submit an application, uh, at nowhere summit. com slash how to take over the world. We have an application process just cause we want to make sure that everyone there is high quality. But if you're listening to the show, I know you are, and we hope to see you there.

All right. So to start off with this episode, I just want to revisit. Some of the main takeaways from these three figures, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin. So I went through all of my notes and just drew out some of the things that I'm still thinking about that are rattling around in my brain.

So with Washington, one of the big things is the physicality of greatness. So I have actually changed my life after reading about George Washington, which was I had this neck injury, , that was, , really kind of laid me up. And so I stopped lifting weights for a while and was doing other things to work out.

And then after reading about Washington and thinking about that physicality of greatness, I thought to myself, no, I just need to figure out a way. That's the main thing I need to do. For my body to have more presence. And so I'm back in the gym lifting again as one of the big things. But as a reminder, George Washington, incredible physical presence, just a beast of a man, incredibly strong, tall, impressive.

And that was one of the things that made him stand out that helped him accelerate his career so quickly. So early.  Uh, another thing that I'm taking away from that first episode about George Washington is being a serious person, meaning what you say, projecting a sense of gravitas around your words and actions.

So the one quote that leaps out to me from that is, uh, his advice that he gives to, I think it's his nephew, about being a legislator. He says, speak seldom, but to important subjects, except such as particularly relate to your constituents. And in the former case, make yourself perfectly master of the subject.

Okay. So I love that idea of, Hey, don't talk about things that you don't know anything about. All right. Only talk about really important stuff or stuff that relates to your constituents,  get in the practice of when you speak, having it be very meaningful and that habituates people to really paying attention to what you're When you speak, which means that you can have more impact when you do decide that something's important to you.

So  be physical and be serious. Uh, from the second part of Washington, the art of the dramatic gesture is something I'm thinking about. So there's a few good stories of that. Uh, one is, uh, this, this, uh, Battle where the Americans are,  one is this battle where, uh, uh, One is this battle where an advance guard of Americans are retreating and he pulls up on his horse and says, Parade with us, my brave fellows.

There is but a handful of the enemy, and we will have them directly. According to his aide de camp, Colonel John Fitzgerald, Washington rallied the men with an uproar. Act of unbelievable bravery. He reined in his horse, faced the enemy directly and simply froze. Yet again, the intrepid Washington acted as if he were protected by an invisible aura.

Okay. Um, so that dramatic gesture of, uh, yelling to his men.  Kind of  yelling to his men, rallying them, and then standing and freezing in the face of, of enemy fire. Uh,  I've got two others, uh, one that I mentioned in the episode and one that I did not actually, it was the first time I'm talking about it.

So one is, if you remember, there's this thing called the Newberg rebellion, all these officers who want to kind of rebel against the nascent U S government. And he's trying to calm them down and they're not really listening to him. And then he gets out a letter. And he can't read it and he pulls out his glasses and says, gentlemen, you will permit him and says, gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles for.

I have not only grown gray, but almost blind in the service of my country. And that kind of melts the room, right? This is a great dramatic gesture. And then the other one is a dramatic gesture in a different way. It's to a friend  and this is to Hamilton. So Alexander Hamilton is out of the Washington administration.

They left on good terms and the Reynolds affair has just broken out. Right? Everyone knows now about this affair that Alexander Hamilton had with this woman. It's humiliating to him and to his wife. And Washington, you know, still has all of this great respect and admiration for Hamilton.

Loves him. They're good friends. But there's not much he can do with him, right? Like, making a statement about it will only draw more focus and attention to this embarrassing affair. So what does Washington do  for Hamilton? He sends him a very simple gift. He sends him a wine cooler and that wine cooler has a note that says, not for any intrinsic value, the thing possesses, but as a token of my sincere regard and friendship for you.

And as a remembrance of me, I pray you to accept a wine cooler for four bottles. I pray you to present my best wishes in which Mrs. Washington joins me to Mrs. Hamilton and the family, and that you would be persuaded that That with every sentiment of the highest regard, highest regard, I remain your sincere friend and affectionate,  I remain your sincere friend and affectionate honorable servant, George Washington.

Okay. It was such a simple gesture, just this little gift with a note that says, you know,  I retain all my affection for you, but it meant so much  to Hamilton and his wife. Eliza never sold the wine cooler, always treasured it  That Washington  of just this little token, this, of just this little token, this, this little like lifesaver that Washington threw to them in a very dramatic, difficult time in their lives.

So I think that's another example of just that dramatic gesture of just, I always knew just to do the right thing that just demonstrated some little emotion that, that brought people in and drew them closer to him. So that's my big takeaway from part two of Washington. And then from part three, my big takeaway.

Okay. Deliberate slowly, but act quickly after deciding. So Washington said deliberate maturely, but execute promptly and vigorously. Okay, so take all the time you need to make the correct decision, but once a decision is made, there should be no hesitation between decision and execution.  Okay, moving on to Hamilton.

From part one of Hamilton,  there's of course the idea that writing is the way to break through. You know, this is someone who made his name with an article in the wake of a storm that had visited his island, and that is what got him on the radar of big important people. And then there's the idea of do more, write more, practice more, make more calls, do more deals.

More generally wins.  

And, and with,  and with that idea of more is the idea of wanting it more. And no one wanted it more than Hamilton. I mean, this is a guy,  I mean, this is a guy who wanted glory, who wanted recognition more than almost anyone I've read about. Uh, I remember that letter that he wrote to his friend Ned. He says, quote, To confess my weakness, Ned, my ambition is so prevalent that I contempt the groveling and conditions of a clerk.

Or the like to which my fortune, et cetera, condemned me. And would willingly risk my life, though not my character, to exalt my station. I'm confident, Ned, that my youth excludes me from any hopes of immediate preferment, nor do I desire it. But I mean to prepare the way for futurity.  I'm no philosopher, you see, and may be justly said to build castles in the air.

My folly makes me ashamed and beg you'll conceal it. Yet, Neddy, we have seen such schemes successful when the projector is constant. I shall conclude by saying I wish there was a war.  So just that steady focus is like he said, such schemes are successful when the projector is constant. And he was so constant in wadding, And he was so constant in wanting that distinction so bad.

So wanting it is something I take from Hamilton. From part two, one thing is his work style. Here's,  Okay. Here's, here's a quote about his work style quote, one who knew his habits of study said of him that when he had a serious object to accomplish, his practice was to reflect on it previously. And when he had gone through the labor, he retired to sleep without regard to the hour of the night and having slept six or seven hours, he rose and having taken strong coffee, seated himself at his table where he would remain six, seven, or eight hours.

And the product of his rapid pen required little correction for the press.

Another thing I took away is the Hamilton method of learning. Do read, meet, and teach. So do the work, do the practice to actually get to know the craft, then read everything there is to read from the great authors, from the people who really know what they're talking about, then meet with people, whether peers or mentors who can teach you one on one about what you're trying to learn.

And then prepare something to teach other people. So, you know, He had his law book and his Federalist Papers. He's always writing these treatises that worked as sort of a manual for how to do what he was learning. So, practice, read everything, meet with other people, and then put together something to teach others.

And with those four steps, you can learn anything, like Hamilton learned so much.

Moving on to Benjamin Franklin, my big takeaways. The first is this idea, be curious and playful, okay? Work doesn't have to feel like work. Some things you do just for fun will end up being very useful. In fact, I think probably the most useful things in your life are those things that you do for fun that eventually find a way through serendipity to have this big impact on your life and your career.

So don't worry too much. about the usefulness of everything that you do. You have to at least have certain times when you give in to passion and excitement and playfulness. Make room for that in your life. The second idea,  the second idea is kind of the flip side of Washington, which if the lesson from Washington is to be serious, then Franklin teaches us that there are different ways to get things done.

Because a little bit of self awareness and ah shucks humility can go a long way, right? If you want to convince people, you don't always have to be so serious. You can use  You don't always have to be so serious. You can use a diffident manner to ingratiate yourself to them and kind of bend them to seeing things the way that you do.

So his good quote about this, he talked about his quote, habit of expressing myself in terms of modest diffidence, never using when I advanced anything that may possibly be disputed, the word certainly, undoubtedly, or any others that give the air of positiveness to an opinion. But rather say, I conceive or apprehend a thing to be so and so.

It appears to me, or I should think it so and so, for such and such reasons. Or, I imagine it to be so, or it is so if I am not mistaken.  Okay, so that idea of,

okay, so that idea of when you couch things that way, you give people the flexibility to change their mind. Okay, because you don't make it a conflict, you make it kind of collaborative. When you phrase things that way. So I think that's a really smart way to approach convincing people of your point of view.

Okay. So what are some similarities across all of these figures, Washington, Hamilton, Franklin? One is learn to communicate well,  Hamilton and Franklin were extraordinary writers, Washington, not so much, but he was a great speaker. And he had that thing with dramatic gestures, which I view as a form of communication.

But no matter what you do, learn to communicate well, learn to write well, learn to speak well. And that's something that was common across all of them.  Another is equanimity. All of them were able to keep a cool head when things were going wrong. Whether that is Washington going about commanding his troops while bullets are going through his hat and coat, or Franklin making the best of his situation in London, when the man who was supposed to be funding his venture turned out to be a fraud.

And he's. In a foreign city with no money or Hamilton persevering through the relentless attacks on his character during his time in the Washington administration, all of them had this common trait of keeping that cool head of equanimity, and that's easier said than done, but you just have to practice learning to breathe and just keep a calm head and work through very difficult circumstances because they're going to come and great leaders are those who Who persevere and who see clearly despite difficult circumstances and see clearly despite difficult, despite difficult circumstances.

And then the last thing that's kind of common to them is that they all  kind of had a tribe and organized. They were great kind of social engineers. So Hamilton had his writing clubs. Franklin had his Junto. Washington had his core of junior officers. Americans in general have always excelled at self organization.

I think it's one of the great attributes, which is what I think is one of our great attributes, which has led us to be so successful over the last 250 years. Okay. Self improvement is great, but mutual improvement is significantly more powerful. So the continental Congress, the constitutional convention, the Junto, the university of Pennsylvania, their various anti slavery organizations, Hamilton's role at Columbia university, Washington's Ohio corporation, like All of them had all of these self started organizations with which they collaborated with others and organized with others to accomplish things.

So they all had a genius for organizing groups of people in a common cause. And I think that's crucial to their mutual success and explains kind of the success of the time.  They also had major differences, of course. You can think of, as we mentioned, Washington's seriousness versus Franklin's playfulness, or Washington's reserve against Hamilton's verbosity, or Franklin's gently convincing against Hamilton's viciously attacking when it comes to their style of argumentation.

So I think it goes to show that there are some things that you need. If you want to, , have the type of impact that they did, uh, on a, in a civic sense, but there are also different ways to do it.  You know, maybe you're more of a Franklin type, um, kind of brainy and curious, but you're not, you know, the manly authoritative leader of a Washington, um, or,  or maybe you're none of them. You know, and I just think the, the broader point is that there are different ways to do it and you can learn different things from them, but you don't have to take the whole package.

And if you're not exactly like any one of these three archetypes, that's okay. You can find a way to have your own impact.

So I'm calling this episode The Secret of America's Revolution. ,  and what I mean by that is I've thought a lot about what was it? that allowed these people to be successful, to defy the greatest empire on the earth at the time, and form this constitution and this country that has lasted now for almost 250 years.

None of these men

It's one of the most remarkable accomplishments in human history. And, and what was it? What set them apart? What made this group of men unique that they could pull this off?  And as I thought about it, , I thought that none of them could have done it alone. I mean, one of the things that really stood out to me, Was how different Franklin Hamilton and Washington were and not just them, right?

I mean, those are the three that I profiled I think they're kind of the three most important  But they were far from you know, the only founding fathers and it was this great whole cohort This is this generation which includes, you know, John Adams Thomas Jefferson Thomas Paine Samuel Adams Paul Revere  John Hancock Benjamin Rush George Mason James Madison John Marshall John Jay You You can even go to the foreigners, Lafayette, Rochambeau, like all of these people came together  to, to, to, all of these people came together in this great cause.

So it was the association  of these men that I think was the most crucial element. Their friendship, their mutual love and trust that led to the founding of this great country. I'd like to close with some words that were cut from the Declaration of Independence. Uh, it's probably for the best that they were cut because Jefferson's first draft was a little long.

But at the same time.  I find these to be some of the best sentiments in the document, and I can't help but regret that they were cut out. Uh, so, I want to share them.  The Declaration goes over the list of America's grievances,

and then Jefferson writes, These facts have given the last stab to agonizing affection, and manly spirit bids us to renounce forever these unfeeling brethren. We must endeavor to forget our former love for them, and to hold them as we hold the rest of mankind. Enemies in war, in peace, friends. We might have been a free and great people together, but a communication of grandeur and of freedom, it seems, is below their dignity.

Be it so, since they will have it. The road to glory and happiness is open to us, too. We will climb it in a separate state, and acquiesce in the necessity which pronounces our everlasting adieu.  Okay. I love that the road to glory and happiness is open to us too. I love that sentiment of, you know, they're, they're just these small fledgling 13 colonies, but they're looking at great Britain and saying, you know, what,  what you have that road to glory and happiness is magnificent empire that's open to us to anything is possible for us.

And then the end of the declaration, which has changed very little in the final document. Here's what Jefferson writes. He goes through, you know, now we declare ourselves an independent nation. We sever all ties with Great Britain. And then this is the last sentence. This is how it ends. And for the support of this declaration, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

I think it says so much that the document ends with this mutual pledge.  I think it says so much that the document ends with this mutual pledge. Can you imagine starting a company and at the end looking at your co founders in the eyes and mutually pledging to one another, quote, For the support of this company, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

Right? Probably not. Because it doesn't mean that much to you. It's just a company. But it's very powerful when it does mean that much to you. And so I think that is my enduring takeaway from the series on the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. You know,

is that that fraternity, that feeling, that willingness to pledge to one another, their lives, their fortunes, and their honor is the real secret of the American revolution is the secret to our success,

that sincerity, that belief  that willingness to organize and more than anything, that fraternity, that love for each other, that these founding fathers had that led them to pledge to one another. You know, these, um, their lives, their fortunes, their honor, you know, this American experiment  we're in a, we're in a weird spot right now.

In some ways it seems like it's winding down, right?  We have over 200, 000 deaths of despair every year. We have a polarized country that can't agree on what core principles are represented by this nation. Like it looks in many ways like America is coming apart at the seams.

And I don't think that would have surprised the founding fathers. Franklin, Hamilton, Washington all looked on the constitution as an imperfect document that was as good as anyone could do given the circumstances. But I don't think that they had in mind that they had solved government forever and that  the future, um,  and that the future health of the nation would require No further innovations, no further sacrifice from their progeny, uh,  would require no further sacrifice from their progeny.

Like they knew that times of crisis would come  and this series has given me a renewed determination  to do what they did to find solutions as difficult as it might be, and it won't be a walk in the park to get ourselves out of the mess that we're in.  And as we think about what comes next, what projects or associations could lead to that kind of renewal.

I think that's the bar. That we have to meet. What are the causes and who are the people to whom you would promise?

What are the causes and who are the people to whom you would make that promise? For the support of this, we mutually pledged to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.  If you can find that group  that means that much to you, that you would make that covenant,  then anything is possible. And to me, that is the secret of the American revolution.

You know, independence doesn't mean isolation. It doesn't mean self reliance. No man is an island, but it's finding that cause and that people that you're willing to pledge your life for.  So on this beautiful, warm 4th of July, that is what I'm thinking about. Happy Independence Day to everyone.  All right, that does it.

Until next time, thank you for listening to how to take over the world. By the way, uh, actually, before we close,  if you want to give me a 4th of July present in Independence Day,  actually, by the way, before we close, if you want to give me a 4th of July present, go subscribe to,  go subscribe,  go subscribe to Becoming the Main Character, a podcast by my friend Jameson that I, I helped him launch, but really he has taken it far above what I had, what  Actually, before we close, if you want to give me a 4th of July present, go subscribe to becoming the main character, which is a podcast is like how to take over the world, but for fiction.

And it's amazing. I love it. I did help launch it, but my friend Jameson has taken it far above and beyond the expectations that I had for it. It's great. It's one of my favorite podcasts. I say, giving me a 4th of July present, it's really a present for you. I think all of you, if you love this podcast, you will love that podcast.

So go subscribe to becoming the main character wherever you get your podcasts. Okay. That's it. Thank you for listening to how to take over the world

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