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Take a moment and think about who gave you your big break? For Charles Robert Darwin, an English naturalist, clergyman and professor of biology, John Stevens Henslow gave him his big break when he was recommended for the position of an unpaid naturalist aboard the HMS Beagle expedition to chart coastlines in South America and other areas of the Pacific. That one big break given to Darwin helped to chart his life.

Name: Charles Robert Darwin

Birth Date: February 1809 – April 1882

Job Functions: English Naturalist

Fields: Natural History, Geology, Evolution

Known For: The Origin of Species

Charles Robert Darwin was born in the early 19^th century in Shrewsbury, England, the fifth child of Robert and Susannah Darwin. Both his father, and grandfather, Erasmus Darwin were prominent physicians. His mother, who was the daughter of the famous porcelain maker Josiah Wedgwood, died when Darwin was only eight.

Darwin showed an early interest in natural sciences, especially geology. When he was nine, Darwin attended Shrewsbury School but was not a very good student. In 1825, his father recommended that he study medicine at the University of Edinburg, but Darwin’s earlier failure to achieve academic distinction followed him there. “At Edinburgh, Darwin collected animals in tidal pools, trawled for oysters with Newhaven fishermen to obtain specimens, and made two small discoveries which he incorporated in papers read before the Plinian Society. He put forth no “strenuous effort” to learn medicine.”

His father then suggested that he study theology at the Christ’s College at the University of Cambridge in 1828. While at the University of Cambridge, instead of devoting time to clerical studies, Darwin often whiled the time away pursuing his passion for natural sciences. He “developed into an ardent entomologist, particularly devoted to collecting beetles; he had the satisfaction of seeing one of his rare specimens published in James Francis Stephens’ Illustration of British Insects.” Throughout young adulthood, Darwin enjoyed hunting, shooting, and specimen collection.

Darwin’s cousin, William Darwin Fox an entomologist, guided him, and introduced him to clergyman and biologist, John Stevens Henslow who became his tutor in mathematics and theology, and mentor in his personal studies in botany, geology, and zoology. Henslow advised Darwin to join an expedition and delay his appointment to the Church of England. This turned out to be solid advice for Darwin.

A few months after graduation, on December 27, 1831, when Darwin was 22, he embarked on an unpaid position, as part of an expedition team aboard the British survey ship HMS Beagle, headed for the coasts of South America, the Galapagos Islands, New Zealand and Tasmania. Originally, the expedition team was chartered for three years, but Darwin remained a part of the ship’s crew for five years. He was tasked with undertaking the geological, zoological, and botanical side of the official naval survey.

During the voyage from December 27, 1831 to October 2, 1836, Darwin spent 535 days at sea and roughly 1200 on land. On the expedition, he had the first volume of the English geologist’s, Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology, which directed his observations of the geological structure of Cape Verde Islands. But some of Darwin’s observations in South America did not fit with Lyell’s theories.

Darwin kept his field observations in notebooks with the specimens listed serially and their place and time of collection documented. His notes included details on flora, fauna, geological formation and ecology. In South America, Darwin paid attention to changes in the land brought about by earthquakes and volcanoes. On the 10 Galapagos islands Darwin observed and noted that the islands shared many species of flora and fauna in common, but each island also displayed distinct variations within the same group of organisms. Over the upcoming years and when he returned to England, Darwin pondered on the reasons for the variations.

Upon his return to England in 1836, Darwin organized his notes. He also became good friends with Lyell whose work, Principles of Geology helped to direct him; and Darwin later became good friends with botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker, and biologist Thomas Henry Huxley. Both Lyell and Hooker were extremely helpful and supportive to Darwin, and Huxley became known as “Darwin’s Bulldog” for his advocacy of Darwin’s theory of evolution. Lyell welcomed Darwin’s new research on coral reefs and encouraged him to publish other studies from his voyages.

Darwin was elected a fellow of the Geological Society in 1836, elected to the Athenaeum, the exclusive club for men distinguished in literature, art, or science in 1838, and became a member of the Royal Society in 1839. That same year, he published his Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by H.M.S. Beagle.

Darwin had delayed publishing any of his research for a few years as he looked for explanations for evolution to account for the variations in species he had noted on the expedition. In 1838, Darwin found what he was looking for in Thomas Malthus’s 1798 work, An Essay on the Principle of Population. In the essay, Malthus was concerned with overpopulation resulting in famine, and the possible competition for food which could ensue. Darwin surmised that in the struggle for existence, “favourable variations would tend to be preserved and unfavourable ones to be destroyed. The result would be the formation of new species. Here then I had at last a theory by which to work.”

He confided his theory to Lyell and Hooker who urged him to publish his views, but as a very detailed-oriented person, Darwin wanted to further work through his theory, and at the time he was only half-way through his book. In the summer of 1858, Darwin received an essay from Alfred Russell Wallace containing ideas that were very similar to his. Wallace, an English naturist writing from the East Indian Archipelago was asking Darwin to appraise his work. It turns out that Wallace had also read Malthus’ essay.

Once again, Darwin turned to his close friends Lyell and Hooker and submitted his dilemma. He wrote, “Your words have come true with a vengeance – that I should be forestalled.” His friends proposed that Darwin and Wallace collaborate and do a joint announcement. They publicly declared their hypothesis by submitting the paper, On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection to the Linnean Society.

On November 24, 1859, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life over 500 pages in length appeared. The entire first edition of 1,250 copies was sold out on the day of publication. There was public outcry, but Darwin already had friends like Thomas Henry Huxley, also known as “Darwin’s Bulldog” who fiercely defended his ideas of evolution. The Origin of Species “stimulated a general participation by intellectuals of varied casts and backgrounds, some of whom were poorly qualified to join the battle. Philosophers, theologians, biologists, geologists, anthropologists, sociologists, even politicians and men of letters, joined in the melee, with victors and vanquished almost indistinguishable.”

Interestingly enough, Darwin was not the first to propose that species could change over time. For instance, Robert Hooke postulated that fossils could be the remains of vanished ancient species; Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck held that species could evolve through the inheritance of acquired characteristics; and Darwin’s own grandfather Erasmus Darwin had suggested that species might be developing over time by passing changes on through reproduction.

After being a mediocre student all his life, Darwin found success when he focused on his strengths and passions. He kept notebooks, always documented his work, and had a network of people with whom he shared his ideas. And it’s also important to document your work because at any point in time people in different places share the same ideas.

Other Publications

Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by H.M.S. Beagle (1839)

The Voyage of the Beagle (1840)

The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs (1842)

A Monograph of the Cirripedia (1851, 1854)

The Descent of Man (London 1871)

The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872)

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 Population

Encyclopedia of World Biography

Macmillan Encyclopedia of Death and Dying

Encyclopedia of Science, Technology and Ethics

International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences

New Catholic Encyclopedia

World of Earth Science

Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology

Science and Its Times

UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography

Encyclopedia of European Social History

How to Read a Book, pp393-395

Quantum Leaps: 100 Scientists Who Changed the World, Jon Balchin

Books that Changed the World, Andrew Taylor

Related posts:

1. What You Can Learn from Charles Darwin
2. Review of On Natural Selection by Charles Darwin
3. Wisdom of Life: Charles Babbage, Father of the Computer
4. Wisdom of Life: James Naismith, Father of Basketball
5. Profiles in Wisdom: Charles Lindbergh, First Aviator to Make Non-Stop Transatlantic Flight from New York to Paris

During an interview once, the interviewee told me that she has often been mentored by the many books that she has read. While browsing a book about authors as mentors in a bookstore, one of the contributors called books, paper mentors.  The contributor also indicated that the author of Harriet the Spy mentored and influenced her as a writer.

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Can a book be a mentor? Or is it the author who assumes the role of mentor? What about the characters in fiction, can they act as mentors? To answer these questions, requires that we look at the roles that mentors play in our lives. In the most basic sense, a mentor helps a protégé to achieve something that’s really important to her.

The Role of Mentors

• Advisor
• Role Model
• Sounding Board
• Guide
• Teacher/Skills Developer
• Resource Provider
• Champion/Advocate
• Cheerleader
• Confidant
• Critic
• Friend
• Facilitator

Mentors play many of the roles above, but no one mentor can play all of the roles in our lives. Let’s say for argument sake that books can be mentors, what characteristics would the books have for them to be great mentors? For a book to assume the role of a mentor, it has to have many of the elements below:

• Provokes thought
• Provides a deeper level of understanding and heightened awareness
• Ignites passion
• Awakens deep-seated emotions
• Provides practical wisdom
• Chronicles events for strategic guidance
• Provides formulas and intellectual frameworks to use
• Be about a change maker
• Solves everyday problems
• Shifts the reader’s mindset

Reflecting on the elements of a book that make it a mentor, when was the last time you read a really good book that mentored you? If there are books that have mentored you, just like my interviewee, think about the following questions.

• What was it about that book that made it memorable?
• How did you feel after you finished reading the book…sated… hungering for more…unnerved…?
• Did you take copious notes while you were reading this book?
• How many people did you refer this book to?
• Did it evoke any strong emotional response from you?
• Have you used any ideas from the book?
• What genre of book was it?
• Would you say that the book had a profound impact on your life?

If there are books that have mentored you, look at others that deal with the same topic, and do what Mortimer Adler recommends in How to Read a Book, and that is to read syntopically to master the topic, and I would add to also get divergent views. How do the books compare to each other? If the book is about a new area, think about what the author is saying, does it make sense? How does it stack up against what you already know? Also, identify:

• The problem the author presented and how it was solved
• The relevance of the information to your work and life
• Five takeaways
• Five great ideas you can glean from the information presented
• Any rule breaking
• Ideas/solutions that relate to work and life
• Solutions to everyday problems
• Ways to use ideas/insights/takeaways to increase the value of your product/service to your customers both internal and external to the organization

A book can never take the place of a traditional mentor, but it can assume some of the roles of a mentor, especially when you are trying to learn something, to gather information or to further your understanding of something.

Examples Where Books (and other publications) as Mentors Helped

Charles Darwin and British biologist Alfred Russel Wallace independently arrived at similar theories of Natural Selection in the mid-1800s after reading Essay on the Principle of Population by British pastor Thomas Malthus.

After many years of research and observing birds in flight, German engineer Otto Lilienthal, also known as the King of Gliders published his findings in the widely read book Birdflight as the Basis of Aviation. Lilienthal’s research article Practical Experiments for the Development of Human Flight, writings and notes proved invaluable to Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright also known as the Wright brothers. The Wright brothers believed that they could improve Lilienthal’s designs and resolve the problems plaguing aircraft theories. The Wright Brothers are credited for inventing the airplane.

As a child, while confined to bed because of illness, Robert Hutchings Goddard read H G Wells’ The War of the Worlds and became captivated with rockets and outer space. Goddard was a pioneer in liquid-fuelled rocketry and made significant contributions to the field.

While reading an article on a flight, Jeff Bezos founder of Amazon learned that the Internet was growing 2,300 per cent each year and wondered how he could use the information. He then looked at the top 20 catalogues to identify which would translate best to an online business and as a result Amazon was formed.

Now that you have read all this information, can books, authors and characters mentor you? I will leave that for you to digest and decide for yourself. 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.

Book links are affiliate links!

Image Credit: Wikipedia

Related posts:

1. Mondays at the Salon: The Mentor as Invisible
2. Mondays at the Salon: How to Summarize a Book for Professional Development
3. Mondays at the Salon: How to Master a Topic of Interest
4. Mondays at the Salon: Are You Winning the Mind War?
5. Mondays at the Salon: How to De-stress – Walk the Labyrinth

Review of On Natural Selection by Charles Darwin

I have been researching great thinkers and how they have shaped the world. I have also been trying to prove that the act of reading helps to generate or even stimulate great ideas. Great thinkers do not operate within a vacuum, they rely on the works of others, and often expand the original thought and take the world further. Charles Darwin and British biologist Alfred Russel Wallace independently arrived at similar theories of Natural Selection in the mid-1800s after reading Essay on the Principle of Population by British pastor Thomas Malthus.

I wrote this book review four years ago for my newsletter, Ambeck Edge and thought I would share it with you since it makes a great Invisible Mentor.

Darwin defines natural selection as the “preservation of favourable variations and the rejection of injurious variation.” So what does this all mean? Darwin further adds, “Variations neither useful nor injurious would not be affected by natural selection, and would be left a fluctuating element, as perhaps we see in the species called polymorphic… Natural selection can act only by taking advantage of slight variations; she can never take a leap, but must advance by the shortest steps.”

This book wasn’t the easiest to read, and I found it quite “dry”. But, in my quest to find out where really good ideas come from, I made the sacrifice and slogged through it. I have selected fives ideas from On Natural Selection. For the five ideas below, how can you use them in different contexts to resolve/understand modern day problems?

Five Good Ideas

1. When a plant or animal is placed in a new country amongst new competitors, though the climate may be exactly the same as its former home, yet the conditions of its life will generally be changed in an essential manner. If we wished to increase its average numbers in its new home, we should have to modify it in a different way to what we should have done in its native country; for we should have to give it some advantage over a different set of competitors or enemies.
2. Individuals having any advantage, however slight, over others, would have the best chance of surviving and of procreating their kind
3. When a species, owing to highly favourable circumstances, increases inordinately in numbers in a small tract, epidemics often ensue
4. The more diversified the descendants from any one species become in structure, constitution, and habits, by so much will they be better enabled to seize on many and widely diversified places in the polity of nature, and so be enabled to increase in numbers
5. Natural selection is working behind the scenes all the time throughout the world whenever the opportunity arises. It works to improve each organic being in relation to its organic and inorganic conditions of life. You cannot see these slow changes taking place, until after a long period of time has elapsed, we see that the forms of life are now different from what they formerly were

We could take idea number two and look at it in the context of education. It’s a reasonable assumption to make that people who are more educated have a better chance of succeeding than those who have less education. Or, for that same idea, we could say, someone who has an idea and knows how to take action, will be more successful than someone who has ideas but do nothing about them. Success in this context is not restricted to financial success. Why don’t you take one of the above five ideas and see what new ideas you can generate?

I recommend On Natural Selection because I am sure that you will come up with your own five ideas. This is not a book that you would read for entertainment, but it will certainly stretch you.

Excerpt Ambeck Edge May 2005

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• The origin of Origin (guardian.co.uk)

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Any professional who aspires to navigate up the corporate ladder, especially in belt-tightening times, must develop intellectual power. The fastest way to develop intellectual power requires reading the right books which is akin to eating. Some books have to be chewed, some digested and others savoured.

Tim Sanders, former Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo! Inc.  in his book Love Is The Killer App, recommends that you use the 80/20 rule. Spend 80 percent of your reading time on books and 20 percent on articles, newspapers and so on. Books give more detailed knowledge on any subject than articles do.

Before reading, develop a reading plan and identify your purpose for reading. Is it for entertainment, for information or to further your knowledge? Think about how you can apply what you are reading to improve your personal and professional life. When you read, have a pen, notepad and highlighter to take notes and capture ideas that may percolate.

Why Read? 7 Reasons Why You Cannot Afford Not to Read

1. Builds intellectual power: Reading widely allows professionals to learn about different concepts and gain insights, which builds intellectual muscles, enabling them to shine in conversations
2. Builds verbal power: Reading extensively introduces professionals to words they usually would not come across in their everyday interactions. And, research by the Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation found that vocabulary correlated with executive level and income
3. Discovers new ways of thinking: Authors who write thought provoking books frequently introduce readers to new ways of viewing the world
4. Develops critical thinking skills: Reading demanding and difficult text requires focus and concentration, forcing professionals to think about what they are reading
5. Keeps the mind active: Professionals who interact with the words on the pages  are engaged, keeping their minds active into their senior years
6. Discovers/Builds on ideas: After Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace independently read Thomas Robert Malthus’ Summary View of the Principle of Population, they both understood how evolution worked. For Darwin, the rest they say is history. Galileo built on Copernican’s work and Newton built on Galileo’s work and the field of astronomy was born. More recently Amazon juggernaut Jeff Bezos after reading that the Internet was growing 2,300 percent per year wondered how he could use the information. He then looked at the top 20 catalogues to see which would translate best to an online business and as a result Amazon was formed.
7. Builds the power of communication: All of the above reasons enable professionals to communicate with power, both orally and written because they have a well-fed mind.

Consistently reading the right books and the right articles allow professionals to tap into their inner genius and promote a personal growth regiment. Where will the idea for the next “big thing” come from? And more importantly, will you be the person to find, develop, and implement the idea for the next “big thing.” Keep reading!

Related Resources

Building Intellectual Power One Book at a Time

Sasha Dichter’s Blog Post Why do you read?

Photo Credits By Avil Beckford

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