The Invisible Mentor

Archive for September, 2011

Interviewee Name: China Gorman, CEO

Company Name: CMG Group

Website: http://chinagorman.com 

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

China Gorman:  I think of myself as a business leader. I’ve spent the last 30 years of my career in the human capital management space, mostly as a leader of consulting services businesses at the local, regional, national and global levels that provide services to organizations so that they are operated more effectively as it relates to their people management strategy and behaviours. So I run businesses that support HR in helping their businesses be more effective.

Avil Beckford: How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

China Gorman: I try always to be China Gorman, not sometimes I’m China Gorman the public speaker, sometimes I’m China Gorman the blogger, sometimes I’m China Gorman the consultant, sometimes I’m China Gorman President and CEO, sometimes I’m China Gorman the Chair of the Board. I decide to be China Gorman and integrate all those roles into my life because I don’t have a set of values for being the Chairman of the Board for the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning and a different set of values as a public speaker and a different set of values as a consultant. My values are my values and so my behaviour should be my behaviour. I think that’s how you integrate it all in. You’ll always be you and not A, B, C, that kind of thing. 

Avil Beckford: When you have some down time, how do you spend it? 

China Gorman: I love to travel. I consider myself a citizen of the world – travelling whether it’s in the US or around the world. I love to travel with my husband; he’s the best travel buddy ever. I read a lot, both in business and fiction. And I’m a huge theatre buff so whenever I’m travelling if there is live theatre then I’m ‘all over that’.

Avil Beckford: What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

China Gorman:

1. Always act with integrity.
2. Always assume the best about people and their motives and behaviours.
3. Always be true to yourself and always be yourself.
4. Be a student of the game which means never stop learning.
5. Always bring a solution. Don’t criticize or complain unless you have a solution. Always be part of the solution and not part of the problem.

Avil Beckford: What process do you use to generate great ideas?

China Gorman: I ask a lot of people a lot of questions. I don’t by any means presume in any role that I play that I’ve got all the answers or a lot of the answers. I’m always going to assume that everybody is smarter than I am. I ask a lot of questions and try to empower others to work on their big ideas and their suggestions. It’s “If this were happening to you, what would you do about it?” Or, “You know we’re challenged with this particular issue, how would you solve it, where would you go, how would you do it?” It’s a way to engage colleagues and it’s a way to add to your databank all the time.

Avil Beckford: What’s your favourite quotation and why?

China Gorman: My favourite quotation is by Mary Baker Eddy and it is, “To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, today is big with blessings.”  And it’s my favourite because it always reminds me of the blessings that are all around us and the need for us to see and acknowledge them.

Avil Beckford: How do you define success? And in your opinion what’s the formula for success?

China Gorman: The definition for success is being a positive impact in whatever situation you find yourself in – a personal situation, a business situation, whatever. It is about leaving things better than you found them, whether it’s a relationship, a branch office, a business, a market. And you do that with a lot of selflessness, it’s not who is right, what’s right, and you have to work hard, be reliable and have people understand who you stand for and only operate from a place of integrity.

Avil Beckford: What are the steps you took to succeed in your field?

China Gorman: I think it’s always assuming a positive outcome. So with the Dallas experience I shared earlier, I could have turned around in two weeks after I understood the impact and import of the situation and run away from there screaming. But I took it as an opportunity to learn, to bring healing, to engage the team on a much more positive path forward. It was being able to see everything as an opportunity for growth – personal growth, business growth, knowledge growth, market growth. It’s being able to see things as positive opportunities, and then being willing to move forward into them.

For a few years, in one of the organizations that I was in, we moved for opportunities in the organization many times. I don’t know if you remember the commercial from years and years ago where three little boys – brothers – at breakfast, and the mom puts down a new kind of cereal and the two older boys think, “Ick that looks gross,” and then they look at each other and say, “I know, let’s get Mikey to try it, he’ll eat anything.” So for a while, I was the Mikey – this operation needs to be turned around, “let’s get China, she’ll go anywhere.”

My family situation was such that we could take those kinds of opportunities because of my husband’s career he was pretty portable, we didn’t have children so we didn’t have those kinds of issues to deal with that would make frequent geographic moves a terrible challenge. So seeing things as opportunities and being able to take them on for a positive outcome for everybody, I think is what it took for me to move forward as rapidly as I did in terms of responsibility and authority, particularly at some of the early ages that I did.

Avil Beckford: What advice do you have for someone just starting out in your field?

China Gorman: For someone who is just starting out today I would encourage them that nothing is beneath you. Every job is an opportunity to learn – to learn from your boss, to learn from your organization, to learn some skills from a professional development perspective. So the big one is every opportunity is a good opportunity. As I work and mentor young people who are in college, here are the things that I generally tell them:

1. Establish a reputation for effectiveness regardless of the job that you are in. Be the go-to person. The organization knows that if they give you something it will be done and it will be done well.
2. Be a great team player and be more interested in the collective success, opposed to I did it, we did it.
3. Be a lifelong learner and learn your business inside and out, whether you’re flipping burgers, folding shirts in a retail establishment or you’re an intern doing research, or you’re in your first job out of college, or just getting your foot in the door, know the business of the organization, know how it makes money, how it innovates, how it fits in the competitive world. Because of the worldwide web, all of this data is available for every business. If you’re shy and don’t want to ask people questions you just go online. But know your business and know your organization and its place in the competitive marketplace.

Avil Beckford: If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?

China Gorman: There are five and the questions are the same for all of them and it would be, “How did you continue to persevere against the difficult odds that you face as a leader?” The leadership question is, “How is it that you never quit, you continued to persevere?” The five people are:

1. Abraham Lincoln
2. George Washington
3. Mahatma Gandhi
4. Mother Teresa
5. Martin Luther King

Avil Beckford: Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?

China Gorman: On a fundamental personal level I have to say it’s the Bible because it’s the foundation of my values and my religious commitment and my religious life. But if you set that aside it’s even more difficult because my favourite book is the book I’m reading at any one time. Lately I’ve been reading about tribal leadership. I’ve been reading a great book called Re-engaged, but the one that moves with me from office to office, from organization to organization, is called The Leadership Challenge, 4th Edition by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner. It’s a leadership primer. It talks about exemplary leadership, credibility and finding your voice, inspiring your vision, the very basics of how to be a leader.

Avil Beckford: You are one of the 10 finalists on the reality show, So, How Would You Spend Your Time? Each finalist is placed on separate deserted islands for two years. You have a basic hut on the island and all the tools for survival; you just have to be imaginative and inventive when using them. You are allowed to take five books, one movie and one music CD, and whatever else you take has to fit in one suitcase and a travel on case. What would you take with you and how would you spend the two years? T he prize is worth your while and at this stage in the game there really aren’t any losers among the 10 finalists, since each are guaranteed at least $2 million?

China Gorman:

Five Books

1. The Bible
2. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
   
3. My own journal, a really big book because I would be writing in it every day.
4. Jane Austen novel
5. Large picture book of the history of painting so I’d have representation of amazing art.

I’m not somebody who watches movies over and over again, I’d rather read the book over and over again. I’d bring a CD of one of the Broadway production of Les Miserables, not a movie but a stage presentation. If I’m by myself for two years I want upbeat music, and I think I’d bring the Greatest Hits of the Manhattan Transfer.

For the two years I would work to maintain and improve my physical condition. I would be swimming, running, exercising, I would sing a lot to get my voice in shape, I would spend a lot of time in prayer and it would be cool to read the Bible straight through a couple of time.

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

China Gorman: What people can do when they come together, and I was reminded of this just the other day. I was speaking at a conference in San Antonio and one of the other speakers used a video clip of a flash mob scene I think in Belgium in a big train station where all of a sudden the people milling around started dancing as Julie Andrews was singing “Do-Re-Mi” and person by person, the entire place started dancing together to this incredible music in this incredible place.

Click here if you cannot view the YouTube video “DANCE TRAIN STATION BELGIUM do-re-mi The Sound of Music – Julie Andrews”.

That kind of teamwork, creativity, application of will, these were people from all walks of life – young, old, professionals, students – that kind of coming together. It wasn’t spontaneous, of course they rehearsed it, but somebody thought of that, somebody engaged all of those people, with all of these different backgrounds to come together to do this creative, beautiful thing and that just makes me weep, and it’s not sadness, it’s awe, appreciation, inspiration.

It’s just like the first time I went to see Les Miserables on Broadway, and I’d heard the music, and yet as soon as the overture started I started “leaking” and through that whole production the amazing ability of man to come together in an inspired way to produce a thing of such beauty and inspiration is what excites me and partly why I love the theatre. When I think about Les Mis as an example, the costume, the singing, the acting, the stage, the orchestra, the whole vision, and the story all coming together, for me is so powerful a reminder of what’s good, what’s possible of what’s brilliant of the collective inspiration of man. That excites and inspires me.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

China Gorman: I spend time with people I think are smarter than I am which would be just about everybody. I listen and ask questions, try to get to know the real them in a real authentic kind of way.

Avil Beckford: If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for?

China Gorman: I would want to be as smart as Solomon and ask for wisdom.

Avil Beckford: Complete the following, I am happy when…..

China Gorman: I’m happy when I feel like I’m living up to my potential and making the situation around me better.

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Interviewee Name: China Gorman, CEO

Company Name: CMG Group

Website: http://chinagorman.com 

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

China Gorman:  I think of myself as a business leader. I’ve spent the last 30 years of my career in the human capital management space, mostly as a leader of consulting services businesses at the local, regional, national and global levels that provide services to organizations so that they are operated more effectively as it relates to their people management strategy and behaviours. So I run businesses that support HR in helping their businesses be more effective.

Avil Beckford: What’s a typical day like for you?

China Gorman: Today, I’m in a one-person consulting business as I’m reviewing opportunities to go back into the corporate world as a business leader. I get up early and I work out which is a luxury I generally do not have when I’m working in a corporate position because I’m on the road all the time. I spend a lot of my time reading, talking to people, giving speeches, keynote addresses at conferences. I am keeping current with research in the field and I’m starting to do a little bit of consulting with companies that are really interested in looking at the connections between the organization culture, its leadership behaviour, management philosophy, and engagement of employees.

Avil Beckford: How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?

China Gorman:  I think by being what a colleague of mine once called a “student of the game,” never assuming that I know it all. So that means that I have constantly got to be spanning the horizon of research, business writing of what’s happening in the space, in blogs, in the world of publishing to keep current. It’s a constant quest for what’s new, what’s current, is what really keeps me going.

Avil Beckford: If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

China Gorman:  That’s such a great question and I don’t think I would do a lot that differently because my career so far has just been amazingly wonderful. One thing I didn’t do, and I let circumstances prevent it, was not to finish my Masters Degree. When I was in my thirties, I was working for an organization when I was transferred, at one point every 18 months. I was in one location and finished all the course work for an MS in Organizational Development and was just getting started on my thesis when I got transferred. It was a very challenging new assignment, and I let it slip and I never went back to it. If I were going to do it all over again I would have persisted and finished the Masters Degree. I don’t think that not having it has been a problem but it just feels like an unfinished thing.

Avil Beckford: What’s the most important business or other discovery you’ve made in the past year?

China Gorman: I think what everybody is discovering these days, is the power of the social web, both on a personal and on a business level. It’s not just about watching kiddies’ videos on YouTube anymore, and it’s also not watching behind-the-scenes bad behaviour in a pizza restaurant, it’s really harnessing the collective of the crowd for good, and sometimes for not good. I’ve really been interested in participating in and discovering the power of social media.

Avil Beckford: What are the three threats to your business, your success, and how are you handling them?

China Gorman: I have two things going on right now. One is generating speaking and consulting opportunities and the other is trying to identify the next business leadership role, back in the business world to become part of an organization. Some potential threats are:

1. Lack of visibility: You cannot be in front of everybody whenever they have the need for a new president or CEO or Chief Operating Officer, or when they need someone to come in and work with their senior team. You can’t be in front of everybody all the time, so what I’m doing about that is, like you, I have a blog and I do public speaking, I attend conferences. So lack of visibility would be one threat.
2. My focus in consulting business is providing strategic support and motivation within organizations that really need to engage with their workforce. I think one of the barriers to that is that other than my first three years out of college, I’ve never been an HR person. I’ve always been a business leader. I’ve always been the bringer of solutions and so in some cases, the very people that I’m talking with, and supporting are HR people, and it could, although I haven’t seen it yet, be a hurdle that I have never been an HR leader. I’m dealing with that by spending lots and lots of time with HR leaders, in-person, on the phone, virtually through the social web to continue to understand as I have throughout my career, and specifically when I was the Chief Operating Officer at the Society for Human Resource Management to understand what their issues are.
3. Because I haven’t been a Chief HR Officer it’s important that I know how it is to walk in their shoes, what the issues are, and how they are changing and what the pressures are and creating those relationships continues to be really important.

Avil Beckford: What’s unique about the service that you provide?

China Gorman: The unique thing is that it’s me! The service that I provide now is public speaking and consulting with organizations and what I’m selling is me. There isn’t another China Gorman out there, some people would say, “Thank God,” but I think a lot of people would say, “That’s not such a bad thing,” but that’s a unique thing. I’m not Marshall Goldsmith, Tony Hsieh, I’m China Gorman. That’s the unique thing and that’s what you get when you engage with me.

Avil Beckford: Describe a major business or other challenge you had and how you resolved it. What kind of lessons did you learn in the process?

China Gorman: I was promoted into leadership roles at a very young age. And the biggest challenge that I have had in my professional life was being very young in positions of authority and responsibility. People are sometimes surprised at age and not gender, but I think because I was blessed with being my mother’s daughter, and have always looked younger than my age, the real issue for me has always been, “Gee she is too young to be in this position.” The issue of gender was not the issue, the issue was what does this kid know? How can this kid possibly be my boss? How can this kid have the answer to my systemic organizational problem?

What’s been interesting to me is that it’s only been in the last couple of years frankly, three or four, that I have felt like I have been dealing with any kind of gender bias in the workplace. Because in the earlier days of my career in handling the issue of how can someone so young be in this position, I was also simultaneously handling the gender issue. In either case, the question isn’t how can someone so young be in this position or how can a girl be in this position, it’s really one of what do you know, how can you help me, and can I trust you? In answering those questions and presenting myself as someone who has the expertise, experience and can absolutely help you, the gender and age issue went away, and all the other issues.

For example, when I was in Texas, I was a young leader, and also I was seen as a Yankee. Or when I was running a global organization and I was in France, then I was an American. The biggest thing I’ve had to deal with for the longest period of time was really an age bias as opposed to any of the others.

Avil Beckford: Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

China Gorman: A huge break came when I was just turning 30, and I had been in the consulting business, the outplacement or career consulting business for several years. I had just done a branch office start-up that was in place and running for about a year successfully when the leader in their second largest operation (Dallas) in the organization was terminated amidst ethical and integrity kinds of issues. It was a very large staff of professional consultants and operation support people.

It had previously been the most successful operation from a profitability standpoint of the organization and the morale was down the tube. All the staff had one foot out the door and before my boss could call me and say, “We really want you to go to Dallas and work on that situation,” I called my boss and said, “Look, if you’re thinking that, please don’t. This business here in Kansa City is just getting off the ground, it’s very successful, but if you pull me out and take me to Dallas, we could potentially do damage to two operations. I love Kansas City and I’d love to stay.” He said, “Absolutely, I totally agree with you. We would never do that.”

Three weeks later he called me and said, “Get on a plane you are the new general manager of the Dallas operation. There is a big marketing event in the morning and you have to be there. I will be announcing you as the new manager.”

Now, I was very young. I was only 30. It never occurred to me to say, “Wait a minute, we discussed this, this isn’t a good idea, I don’t want to go.” It never occurred to me to say that even though that was the truth. I loved Kansas City and I had questions about being in the south and those sorts of things but I got on the plane and I went and did the marketing event the next day and met the staff. Interestingly, everyone on the staff, including all the operations and administration people, everyone on that staff was older than I was. When I walked in after the marketing event to meet my new team, to say that they were hostile and looked askance at me, would be a gross understatement.

Rather than seeing this as some kind of karmic punishment, I only saw it as an opportunity, and in fact looking back, it really was my big break. About a year into it, the issues that we uncovered as we started to bring healing to that operation and continue to grow it, the issues were wide and deep. And it was an incredible leadership crucible for me, and I learned how to be a leader in those two-and-a-half years that I was general manager of that operation, having to re-engage and re-enrol every single person on that team, having to go back out into the marketplace recapture longstanding accounts that we had lost as well as lead the sales effort to continue to bring in accounts that the business would continue growing.

I think about halfway through I thought to myself on a couple of occasions, “Boy if I’d really known what was here, I would not have come.”  I really would not have come, which would have really been too bad because I learned so much. A very difficult opportunity turned into my big break because it taught me how to lead, how to lead from behind, servant leadership if you will. The only way a 30 year old was going to be successful leading a group of PhD’s and 30-year tenured professional consultants was by creating a team and engaging them in a larger vision.

It turned into a very successful operation. We grew by leaps and bounds, we opened satellite offices, we won awards, not just for sales growth and profitability, but for quality – the team was featured in a Fortune magazine article. It was a textbook sort of turnaround situation that we all accomplished together, it wasn’t me, but rather it was the team pulling together. I always think of that as my big break as a leader because I really learned how to lead when all the chips were down.

Avil Beckford: Describe one of your biggest failures. What lessons did you learn, and how did it contribute to a greater success?

China Gorman:  I have always known as a leader in a services business, particularly in a professional service business, and I think this goes to every kind of business, your success depends on your team, whether your team is 1,500 people around the world as it was in one instance, or whether it was four people in a start-up, or everything in between, it all relates to the people. I have always spent a lot of my time and energy ensuring that we have the right people in the right jobs and they have what they need, and that they are developing in a way that is in alignment with their personal mission and values and with the organization’s mission, values and needs.

In one situation years ago I promoted someone to a leadership role, and I knew it was a bit of a risk perhaps from emotional maturity perspective that he might not have been ready, but he was so smart, so willing, and worked so hard that I thought we could overcome any of those deficits. For a time it was a good fit, the learning curve was steep but it was appropriate and I think the performance pressure got to him and things started to unravel. I just redoubled my efforts to provide outside support and I continued to invest time and energy in trying to turn that sort of square peg into a round hole depriving other parts of the organization and other parts of my responsibility of my time and energy.

I stuck with it way longer than I should. The failure was I went against my doubt. This individual was not ready to assume a much bigger leadership role and it did damage to him and his career, it did damage to our organization because I just stuck to it and thought we can get this done and it was more painful for everyone much longer than it should have been. So that was a good lesson. When you realize that you have made a mistake even when you have everyone’s best interest at heart, and it was an honest mistake, you have to step up and rectify the situation quickly and certainly that feels like a pretty big failure to me.

Avil Beckford: What’s one of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make and how did it impact your life?

China Gorman:  When you are a leader and you have people’s careers in your hands that’s a huge responsibility. Years ago in another situation, when I was promoted, I promoted someone behind me, and then I was promoted again so that person was no longer reporting to me. He was reporting to someone who reported to me. There was something going on with this individual, and the whole organization was in a difficult economic dynamics of the business, and this person was leading an organization in a part of the country that was particularly challenged from the economics of our business and business model.

He just wasn’t stepping up, and I worked with his manager to provide some suggestions on how to motivate and support him. I spoke with the individual; we had become good friends, and said, “This isn’t looking good. Here are some ways that you can strengthen.” Nothing happened so I finally approved the decision to make a change and terminate his employment. It was so difficult, that decision was so difficult.

What followed for about nine months was the most difficult time in my leadership career on a personal level because his wife called me fairly frequently to tell me tearfully what his situation was. He wasn’t finding a job, how could the organization turn its back on him, and he never knew that she was calling. It was a very difficult time, I felt like we’d made the right decision, and I felt he’d been given lots of opportunities to improve and correct. He’d gotten coaching from his boss and from me and yet I knew him and had great affection for him, and knew that I was impacting a family. It was unusual that the spouse would feel comfortable to make those calls late at night, calling from the basement, calling from the car. That was really a difficult time in the aftermath of a really difficult decision that didn’t get any better for quite some time.

Avil Beckford: What are three events that helped to shape your life?

China Gorman:

1. I grew up in a very small town with an education system that was falling apart. When I was a junior in high school my grandparents made it possible for me to attend a boarding school far from home. It was a church school and my grandparents didn’t live far away so I wasn’t cut off from my family. But going away to boarding school when I was junior in high school absolutely changed how I looked at the world. It changed my life, learning to be self-sufficient, learning to be self-motivating, learning to be independent at age 15 instead of 17 when you go off to college. I grew up quickly, not in a bad way, in a really good way.
2. Being a partner in a start-up, a small consulting firm, when I was in my mid-twenties. A much more senior fellow and I worked together to create a consulting business that took off. The saying that it’s always better to be lucky than good, we were both good but our timing was even better because of the economy. Our business started off in the black in month one and just continued that way. That was an incredibly powerful learning and leadership experience for me.
3. The experience of moving to the Dallas operation, engaging the team to turnaround the performance and really move that business forward I think was also another life shaping or leadership shaping experience. It was about leadership and I personally brought in some of the biggest sales in that organization’s history and managed those very complex relationships that were national that turned into international.

These three events set the stage for some of the other wonderful things that happened in my career and life.

Avil Beckford: What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?

China Gorman:  I think the success that my organization experienced when I was the president of Lee Hecht Harrison – Chief Operating Officer for two years and then Global President for two years was a difficult time in the economy. We had a lot of catching up to do from a products and services perspectives, we were integrating a number of acquisitions into the business, so retaining our best talent, moving the business forward, our impact forward, our visibility forward through an incredible group of people. I think that’s one of the accomplishments that I am proudest of. But I have to hasten to say that it’s not like I did it on my own, the team was incredible and keeping that team engaged, retaining that talent when they all had other options all the time and our competitors were always trying to poach our regular talent away. Keeping that team intact and moving forward was really exciting and watching and supporting their success was one of the things I am proudest of.

Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?

China Gorman:  All my mentors were ad hoc. The organizations that I was a part of until I became a significant leader were medium sized firms so they didn’t have very robust HR departments so things like mentor programs and those kinds of things were just not available to me. But I watched, I was smart and I watched, so I’ve learned both what to do and what not to do based on the leadership example that I had in front of me. Some CEOs I would learn what to do and also what not to do and some of my immediate bosses I would think to myself, “When I’m in that position I’m not going to so that, or that was brilliant, the way he managed me through that situation, I have to remember to be able to do that, when I’m in that position.”

While I don’t think I had anybody who would think that they were my mentor, I’ve had lots of them but it was more through observation than formal relationships.

Avil Beckford: An invisible mentor is a unique leader you can learn things from by observing them from afar, in the capacity of an Invisible Mentor, what is one piece of advice that you would give to readers?

China Gorman:  The thing that I observed the most was “Gee I don’t want to be like that when I’m in charge,” to say it in a positive way is to always be authentically you. I have observed over the years that senior leaders whether it be the CEO or some other, you can be with them in a social setting, dinner or drinks after work, or something like that and you have a really warm relationship, and when you see them in the morning and we are back at work, they are this other persona, the CEO persona, or the Executive Vice President persona, acting the way they think a CEO or EVP is supposed to act. I always found that non-motivating and made me question who was the real persona and it brought into question “So who do I trust? Do I trust you when you’re friend? Or do I trust you when you’re the boss?”

My message is, and I try to model this behaviour, your values are your values, personally and professionally. Your behaviour should be congruent with those values whether you are a friend with someone or you are their boss, or the ultimate leader of the organization. The message is, don’t have a collection of personas that you whip out depending on your surroundings and depending on what task is at hand. Trust yourself and your team to be your real YOU all the time.

As a leader, there are times you have to make difficult decisions and so you put your game face on. There are times when you really want to be empathetic and engaging and so you do that. It needs to be all from the authentic you, not from the president persona. When I’m at work, and something else at another time it confuses people and it makes them not really trust who is the real you and it diminishes your ability to be transparent, which is a critical leadership behaviour particularly these days.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Name: Alexander the Great (Alexander III of Macedon)

Birth Date:  356 BC – 323 BC

Job Functions: King, Conqueror

Known For: Conquered most of the Old World

Alexander the Great was the son of King Philip II, King of Macedon (Macedon is a kingdom in northern Greece) and Olympias, a Molossian princess who was the fourth of the several women married to his father. King Philip II created the kingdom that Alexander the Great went on to expand into an empire in Asia and North Africa. Alexander rarely saw his father while growing up because he was often away on military campaigns so his mother played a prominent role in his life.

One of Alexander’s first tutors was Leonidas, a relative of Olympias who trained him in math, archery and horsemanship. Another tutor Lysimachus devised games that impersonated Achilles, the heroic Greek warrior, from The Iliad, the epic poem of the Trojan War. When Alexander was only 12 he tamed a wild horse no one else could ride and named it Bucephalus. The two became companions for many years and Alexander would ride his horse into battle.

At age 13, King Philip II hired Aristotle, the Greek Philosopher to tutor Alexander for three years in the rural Macedonian village of Mieza. Aristotle prepared an abridged version of Homer’s Iliad for Alexander. “Alexander’s mother had impressed upon her son that through her he was descended from Achilles, Greek hero of that war. This deeply impressed the passionate Alexander, who carried Aristotle’s “Casket Iliad” wherever he went.” Aristotle also taught the teenager philosophy, government, politics, poetry, drama and the sciences.

At age 16, Alexander left the tutelage of Aristotle, and served as regent while his father attacked the coastal cities of Byzantium and Perinthus. From a young age, Alexander was very brave and showed military prowess, so while his father was away, Alexander staged a revolt by Maedi in northern Macedon, renamed their chief city “Alexandroupolis,” and settled Greeks in the territory.

Alexander joined his father’s campaign against Athens and Thebes in 338 BC, leading a key cavalry charge in the Battle of Chaeronea. This victory allowed Philip to forge the Greek city-states into an alliance known as the Corinthian League. Under Philip’s leadership, the league then prepared for war against the Persian Empire.

Things didn’t always go well between father and son. After Philip took control of the Corinthian League, he married another woman, which forced Alexander and Olympias to flee Macedon. Eventually Philip and Alexander were united.

When Alexander ascended to the throne after his father’s assassination in 336 BC he was ready to conquer the world. Alexander led the invasion of the Persian Empire where he dethroned despot, King Darius III and freed the Greek colonies in Asia Minor. Alexander became King of Persia. He then subdued Egypt, founded the city of Alexandria, and by 332 BC had full control of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Alexander marched on to Syria, India, farther east and north until he became ruler of the known world of his day. When Alexander conquered the known world he transported Greek ideas and culture everywhere he went – Greek art, science, philosophy, literature, and language. He also worked to improve living standards by introducing water and sewage systems and erected public buildings, parks, market places, gymnasia and theatres.

But the City of Alexandria was Alexander’s pride and joy, and there he made civic improvements as well as created institutions for learning. He founded a great library, and great strides in mathematics and science were made in Alexandria, and medicine and astronomy became important there as well.

Alexander died (sources vary on cause of death – food poisoning, malaria, overdose of medication) in 323 BC at age 32. Dissension arose, which divided the known world into three areas, which were controlled and ruled by his generals until the Romans conquered the areas. Ptolemy declared himself King of Egypt, Seleucus gained control over Persia, Mesopotamia and Syria and Pergamon controlled Asia Minor and Macedon.

The impact of Alexander’s conquest was still felt after his death and was the beginning of the Hellenistic Age. According to Gale Encyclopedia of World History, “New trade routes, notably the sea route to India, were opened during the period of rule by Alexander’s successors. The use of coinage and a monetary economy became standard. Visual, literary, and dramatic arts flourished in the multicultural hotbed of Hellenistic cities. From the dialogue of comedy to the drapery portrayed on statuary, the idealistic forms of Classical Greece were replaced by more realistic and individualistic models. The quests for realism and understanding were undertaken by philosophers and scientists of the age, including Alexander’s tutor Aristotle. Great advances in astronomy and mathematics were achieved, in part by such brilliant men as Euclid and Archimedes, but also through Babylonian scholarship. The science of medicine made important advances as well.”

Stories of Alexander the Great abounded in Hebrew literature throughout the Middle Ages. The stories spoke of Alexander’s wisdom and high moral standards, reflecting the belief that as a pupil of Aristotle he had to be a philosopher. These stories include: Gests of Alexander, Historia de proeliis Alexandri Magni, and Sefer Toledot Alexander.

And some of the stories Alexander enjoyed are still enjoyed today.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Works Cited/Referenced

Encyclopedia of India

UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography

Gale Encyclopedia of World History: War

Encyclopedia of Judaica

Science and its Times

Encyclopedia of World Biography

Arts and Humanity Through the Eras: Ancient Greece and Rome (1200 BCE – 476 CE)

A Short History of the World, J. Milnor Dorey

I am not a history buff. I do not particularly like history. But history has an important place because it helps us to put things in context. It helps us to better understand the innovative thinkers and inventors who have helped to shape our world. It helps us to understand why people did what they did, and the kind of world they were living in at the time. For the most part, I am not inspired to pick up a history book and read it from start to finish, the way I would for most other books.

Doing the research for, and writing the Wisdom of Life Profiles have opened up a new world for me, and I saw the world unfolding in front of my eyes and it’s quite a remarkable feeling. Through the eyes of the people I profile, I am steeped in history. For instance, I saw Roman Emperors through the eyes of Queen Boudica and Seneca. I saw World War II through the eyes of Sir Winston Churchill, what Russia was like during the Bolshevik Revolution through Ayn Rand and Sergei Rachmaninoff, the Revolutionary War through Thomas Jefferson, the American Civil Warthrough Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglas and many more.

Image via Wikipedia

I got to see what people like Susan B Anthony, Marie Curie, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and others did to shape our world. I also got to experience what service really means and what it feels like. I also got to experience women’s fight for their right to vote. The things we now take for granted, I saw how hard others fought so that we could have those rights – many gave their lives for their causes.

I travelled with Alexander the Great to Greece, Egypt, Persia, India, and I was there with him when he founded the great library in Alexandria and introduced Greek culture all over the ancient world as he conquered and created a vast empire. Through the eyes of the people I profile, I also see how power can corrupt in the wrong hands, creating despots and fanatics who oppress others forcing their will upon them.

Getting to that place has allowed me to read A Short History of the World by J. Milnor Dorey, and not be bored because it helped me to round out some of the knowledge I acquired from preparing the Wisdom of Life Profiles. It was surprising to discover how much I had already learned. A Short History of the World is exactly that, a short history, so you will not learn about major events in depth by reading it, and the book stops at 1949, so you will not learn about important events after that year.

A Short History of the World by J. Milnor Dorey is divided into two parts, the first is a brief history of the world and the second is a brief history of the United States. It’s a small-sized book, 240 pages in length. It’s divided into:

• Ancient History
• Medieval History
• Modern History
• History of the United States

And under each section, Dorey deals with many topics. For instance, under Modern History you’d find topics such as:

• The Age of Exploration and Discovery
• New Trends at the Beginning of the Modern Period
• Continental Europe from the Seventeenth to the Early Nineteenth Century
• The Early Modern Period in England
• Europe in the Nineteenth Century
• The First World War
• Effects of the First World War
• The Second World War

A Short History of the World serves a purpose because it touches on so many things, and if readers are interested in any of the events mentioned, they can further explore those topics. You’ll learn that the Phoenicians developed the true alphabet, which they partially derived from the Egyptian characters.

One of the greatest battles, Battle of the Marathon in 490 BC, in which the Persians invaded Greece, outnumbering them 10 to one, the Greek prevailed because they defended their homeland vigorously. The battle demonstrates what we can accomplish when we set our minds to it. “Pheidippides ran all the way to Athens to bring news of the victory. When he arrived he uttered one word “Victory,” and dropped dead. The Marathon race is named for this event.”

The Greek led the world in literature, building many theatres in the open. Many college stadiums today were modeled after that concept. The Greeks acted out plays such as Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes. Homer wrote his epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey around 800 BC, and Sappho and Pindar wrote lyric poetry. The great philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle emerged from Greece. The Greek fed their mind, but the Athenians and Spartans were also into physical exercise so they developed games to play, and the great Olympic contests was created.

Emperor Marcus Aurelius (164 – 180 AD) was one of the greatest rulers, and we enjoy his book, Meditations today. Confucius and Lao-tse were two great Chinese leaders. China built the Great Wall of China to keep the raiders and conquerors out. A Short History of the World takes us into the world of the various Dynasties in China. The Arabs in the Middle Ages made significant contributions to mathematics, science, medicine and agriculture. The British invaded France and we have The Hundred Years’ War which was going really bad for the French until Joan of Arc started to lead the French soldiers.

Dorey takes us quickly through history, and we see the birth of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Martin Luther’s reformation of the church; and the Quakers’ start in the United States. As payment for monies owed to him, William Penn, a Quaker accepted a tract of land west of the Delaware River that was in the “New World” in 1681. Penn wanted to leave England because Quakers were persecuted there. This tract of land is known as Pennsylvania for “Penn’s Woods” and he founded the city of Philadelphia. Penn later leased land to the south from the Swedes which became Delaware, and land to the east which became New Jersey.

We get a look at explorers like Christopher Columbus, John Cabot and others, discovering a “New World” that was already occupied by Native Americans. Columbus was looking for a route by sea to India and instead landed in the Americas, the “New World” in October 1492. Italian John Cabot (claimed by the English because he worked for firm in Bristol) set sail and landed in Halifax, thinking that he had reached China. He also discovered Newfoundland. In 1499, Amerigo Vespucci explored the coast of South America and Balboa investigated what we now call Central America.

President Jefferson purchased Louisiana from the French for $15 million in 1803, and nearly doubled the size of the US. And in 1819, President James Monroe purchased Florida from Spain for $5 million.

Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia in 1819. But Harvard College, the first institution of higher learning in the United States was founded nearly two centuries before in 1636, the College of William and Mary in 1693, and Yale College in 1701.

We also see the acts of despots like Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini and their tragic ends. There are many disturbing events in world history, but we have to take the bad with the good – that’s a part of the price we pay for progress. While reading A Short History of the World by J. Milnor Dorey, I was reminded that this too shall pass. Nothing stays the same forever.

A Short History of the World by J. Milnor Dorey is a great little book to help us understand where we are coming from, so I recommend it. It will be very difficult to get a new copy. I purchased a used copy for $2 from a sidewalk sale. I have written far more profiles than I posted because that was a part of my Summer Project. However, to complement this review, please refer to Boudica, Joan of Arc, Sappho, Charles Darwin, Geronimo’s Story of His Life.

How can you use this information? If there is information that you have to learn, but find it difficult or “dry,” find creative ways like I did to learn it. If you have children who do not like to read, buy books about topics that they are interested in. Perhaps you could get them comic books because they cover virtually any topic you can think of.

What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Is there a subject that you have to learn that is quite dull? There are many ways to fill the information gap if you get creative enough. Take me for instance, I do not like history and it has never been one of my favourite subjects, but more and more, I am feeling the information gap and the need to fill it. See Part Two and Part Three of How to Fill the Information Gap series.

There are many people who I wanted to learn more about, many were historical figures and well known, and others were not so well known. The well known figures, I knew their claim to fame but not much else. No one wants others to know, that they are ignorant about anything, myself included. No one wants to ask the “dumb” questions. I decided to educate myself by creating Wisdom of Life Profiles which took on a life of its own. I started off researching people who I was interested in learning more about.

In addition, I learned about people to profile who are mentioned in some of the books that I read. For instance, while reading books from the Rogue Angel series, Alex Archer (pen name) always scatters interesting tidbits about people like Boudica, Joan of Arc, and Frederic Auguste Bartholdi (sculpted the Statue of Liberty). When I researched these people, history unfolded before my eyes. As I read Faye Kellerman’s Hangman: A Decker/Lazarus Novel, I learned about Russian musician Sergei Rachmaninoff who fled from Russia and lost everything during the Bolshevik Revolution. Rachmaninoff was a great pianist and composer who I didn’t know about until I read that novel.

When I researched Ralph Waldo Emerson, I learned that he was against the Fugitive Slave Act and refused to obey it because he felt all people were equal. I also learned about biographer and historian Thomas Carlyle who was a friend of Emerson. What makes learning history this way interesting, is that I am seeing it through the eyes of people I am interested in so I’m likely to remember what I read.

Think of ways to bring a dry subject to life. Is there someone who you respect, who has written about that subject? Are there children’s books on the subject? How about videos or films? What about comics and graphic novels on the subject? For me, I found a starting point, and then I delved into the subject. Tomorrow we’ll review A Short History of the World by J. Milnor Dorey.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Related Articles

The Precursor to How to Master a Subject
How to Master a Subject
How to Fill the Information Gap Part Two
How to Fill the Information Gap (when you don’t know there is a gap) Part Three

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