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From Rod’s Success Secrets. Click here for the rest of the ongoing series.
by Rod D. Martin
September 21, 2015
One of the most essential keys to success? Study those who’ve gone before.
History gets a bad rap. Children are conditioned to hate it: they are told it’s boring, they are told it’s all memorization of facts and dates. And sadly, all too often, that’s exactly how their teachers teach it.
But history isn’t facts and dates. History is a story, the narrative of those who’ve gone before. And very few people make it into the history books unless they were pretty successful, or at least if their story wasn’t pretty interesting.
To the degree that success is about solving problems (and that making money is about solving other people’s problems), history teaches us both the nature of those problems and how other people solved other problems before us.
The first of those is essential. You can’t solve a problem you don’t understand. This is the great handicap of many a diplomat hoping to bring peace in the Middle East. They don’t speak the language, they don’t grasp the history (both macro and micro, national and personal), and so they try to apply “solutions” that only make sense from half the world away.
Programmers are no different. Were it left to software engineers, you would be using MS-DOS version 27.3, not Windows or a Macintosh or a smart phone. The command line interface makes a great deal of sense to a programmer. Their customers, and particularly the many people who were not their customers yet, thought otherwise. Better appreciation of the customer’s perspective resulted in market growth from a few million units to billions.
History frequently teaches that perspective, or at least the need for it. History certainly teaches the nature of problems that need solving.
But perhaps most importantly, history teaches us the example and accumulated wisdom of successful men and women.
For many of us, Steve Jobs has been a major figure for much of our lives. To those being born right now, he’s just another dead guy. “Bor-ing.”
Are there any other boring guys we could learn as much from as Steve Jobs?
Without a doubt. Take Bill Clinton, one of the most successful politicians of our time. Aren’t there many things to be learned from him, not least his willingness in 1991 to take on a President with a 90% approval rating when the Democratic Party’s anointed ones would not? And likewise, might Clinton have avoided nearly derailing everything if he’d learned a bit more from David and Bathsheba?
Could Hitler have learned anything from Napoleon’s invasion of Russia? Did Stalin?
James J. Hill built the only transcontinental railroad that took no government money and no government land grants; it was also the only one not to go bankrupt. One could study Hill’s life and accomplishments profitably for many years.
Everyone can name men like Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, and even perhaps a couple of their accomplishments. But what was really involved in creating the modern assembly line? What did the financing look like? How did both of these men turn novelties into mass consumer products? Where did they fail, and what can we learn from that? What did they learn from that?
Perhaps the single biggest lesson to be learned from such men is this: they absolutely uncompromisingly steadfastly refused to quit. Understanding the magnitude of the difficulties they faced and the tenacity and ingenuity with which they surmounted them will put iron in your spine and courage in your soul.
Someday, when Martin Laboratories invents warp drive, it will be in part because of all the naysayers who confidently believed that Chuck Yeager could never break the sound barrier.
From Scipio Africanus to Richard Morris, from Hudson Taylor to Henry Flagler, from Fred Harvey to Ray Kroc, history is filled with extraordinary tales of success and failure from which we can learn far more than we would any other way.
Study those who’ve gone before. You’ll learn how little you really know, and how few of your ideas are really original. You’ll also learn how to become truly great.
This article appeared in Inc. Magazine, and originally appeared as an answer on Quora.
Rod is one of our nation’s leading minds. He’s smart, original, and very committed—a combination that one rarely finds.
Rod Martin and [former Howard Dean campaign manager] Joe Trippi are America’s two foremost experts on online politics.
Rod Martin is a Reaganite-Thatcherite conservative…[and] a man who has spent much of his life ministering to and working for the benefit of others. I know Rod as an advocate for freedom, a leader who understands the real changes we need in Washington, and who has the drive and ability to make those changes happen.
Rod Martin is the kind of dynamic leader who has the knowledge, ability and experience to lead us successfully into the 21st Century. His vision for America is compelling.
Rod Martin literally wrote the book on excellence. Humble yet brilliant, a man of love and compassion, with penetrating clarity he illuminates the world around us, and we are both stirred and enlightened.
Rod Martin is a born leader and an outstanding political mind. Anyone who takes him on is going to have a serious fight on their hands.
Rod Martin is a man of uncommon vision and character. Ever since I first worked alongside Rod in the early days of PayPal, I’ve been struck by his powerful vision for the future. Rod understands the intersection of technology, politics and culture in a way that few others do.
Rod Martin wears with uncommon grace an uncanny ability to link his vigorous faith to the practical challenges of both the business world and the political arena. Yet the respect he shows for others carries a warmth and modesty that are both too rare among those who are strong advocates of feisty positions.
America badly needs more leaders who really get the future. We need more Rod Martins.
Rod Martin is a modern day philosopher-statesman. He is a capitalist intellectual, a conservative iconoclast, a gentle adversary and a kind prophet. He inspires us towards a fresh national vision built upon the original founding principles.
Rod Martin is not only effective and efficient, but he is also perceptive, wise and gracious. He gets things done. He is a great friend and a great ally.
Rod is one of the sharpest, most gracious men I know, and one of the most gifted political thinkers today. His ability to analyze issues and communicate thoughtful insights on them have earned him the respect of people across the political spectrum.
I am proud to have been Rod Martin’s friend for a quarter century, and I can tell you that he is one of the finest men and most outstanding leaders in our church and in our country today. He has a knack for turning everything he touches to success.
Rod Martin is a cornucopian entrepreneur and eutropic thinker whose influence radiates through an array of companies, institutions, movements and churches. A renaissance American, he is also a prolific friend of freedom and faith around the globe.
If Rod Martin represents the next generation of leaders, America has nothing to worry about.
A leader and a servant, in public life and in private, Rod Martin strides at the top of his profession, and has nowhere to go but up. He is in the truest sense of the word ‘outstanding’.
Rod Martin is undoubtedly one of the most accomplished thought leaders today. He is a wonderful mentor, a humble role model, and a deep inspiration for the next generation of scientific innovators and entrepreneurs.
Rod’s achievements pale beside his character and his brilliance. He sees what others can’t. He leads when others won’t.
Rod Martin is one of America’s finest young minds.
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