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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.

Genghis Khan, Founder and Emperor of the Mongol Empire, in his sixty five years (1162 – 1227) on earth committed a lot of atrocities. It’s believed that at the time of his death in 1227, “he had been responsible for the death of around 20 million people, around one-tenth of the population of the known world at the time.” In a life filled with savagery and brutality, there is much to learn from Khan, even if it is what not to do.

I hesitated before I purchased 100 Tyrants: History’s Most Evil Despots & Dictators (citations in this post are from this book) by Nigel Cawthorne because I didn’t want to pollute my mind. That was a bit arrogant on my part because life isn’t always rosy, and tyrants will always be around us. Books like this one gives us insights into the way tyrants think and behave, and if we stop to look, there are always lessons around us, even from a thirteenth century tyrant. Genghis Khan started his tyranny at an early age, killing his brother in a dispute over a fish at the age of 12. His tyranny continued throughout his life in his quest to expand his wealth and territory. His major goal was to conquer imperial China. Later in his life, he wanted to share his conquests with his people and he did so. He also had great foresight and kept a written record of his legacy.

Seven Lessons From Genghis Khan

1. Honor your words: In more than one instance after giving his word that a city would be spared and the inhabitants unmolested if they surrendered, Khan reneged on his promise and slaughtered the inhabitants.
2. Take the road less traveled: Khan often won the wars he waged because he didn’t do the expected.
3. Don’t be scared to take on the giants in your field, but be very strategic about it: Khan often defeated armies much larger than his because he was strategic and tactical.
4. Be compassionate when dealing with others: People begged for mercy, begged for their lives, but Khan seldom showed mercy
5. How you play the game is more important than winning: If cities opposed Khan, “As well as massacring the inhabitants, he would destroy the irrigation systems that had taken centuries to construct.”
6. Being weighed down by the tools of the trade can give your competitors and adversaries an unfair advantage: “The Russian knights wore steel armour and had shields, axes, swords and lances, but were heavy and slow compared to the Mongol.”
7. In what ways can you be innovative in the way you conduct your work? Back in the thirteenth century, people in Samarkand “Sent melons as far as Baghdad, packed with snow to keep them fresh.” Today this is nothing because we take refrigeration for granted, back then, that was a hugely innovative act. Also when Khan didn’t have any boulders for the catapults, he improvised and used the cut up trunks of the mulberry tree.

Who are some of the most notable tyrants who have walked this earth? What are five lessons that we can learn from?

Action Steps

Read about some of the most known tyrants and see what you can learn from them.

No one is inherently all bad or all good. Each of us possess both darkness and light. According to Wikipedia, “Beyond his great military accomplishments, Genghis Khan also advanced the Mongol Empire in other ways. He decreed the adoption of the Uyghur script as the Mongol Empire’s writing system. He also promoted religious tolerance in the Mongol Empire, and created a unified empire from the nomadic tribes of northeast Asia.”

BBC Genghis Khan YouTube Video Part One of Five

If you cannot view the BBC Genghis Khan YouTube Video Part One of Five, click here

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 side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

Further Reading

Genghis Khan (from Wikipedia)

BBC Genghis Khan Video Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Photo Credit: Yahoo via Apture

Today, I present 24-year old Nathalie Lussier. It’s the first time that I have interviewed someone so young, but I thought it important to bring you a diversity of voices. Open your mind, and see what you can learn from this young lady who is not only passionate about what she does, but is wise beyond her years. It was a pleasure to interview her because she is so thoughtful, and she was willing to answer questions which require the wisdom that comes with age. For instance, when asked, “If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?” she responded, “I would have started earlier to try to understand what people wanted, see what they had trouble with and help them in that area.” In my opinion, that’s good advice because we often create products that we think people should want, instead of what they actually want.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.  

I am known as the raw foods witch, and I help people to eat more fruits and vegetables. I have a background in software engineering and all of my nutritional knowledge is self taught based on the experience of the results that I have had eating this way.

What’s a typical day like for you?

I wake up and drink a green smoothie, which is basically fruit and green leafy vegetables. After that I work on the computer, and sometimes I go for a swim during the day because I like to break things up. I do more work on my computer and in the evening I have a big salad with my boyfriend Robin, and later read a book.

How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?

I like to get feedback so when I hear that others are enjoying my work or getting a lot of results from what I am teaching, that propels me forward and motivates me.

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

I would have started earlier to try to understand what people wanted, see what they had trouble with, and help them in that area.

What’s the most important business (or other) discovery you’ve made in the past year?

Making relationships a priority is the new way of doing business today. You can really connect with people online with tools like email, Twitter and Facebook. You can really get to know people and build relationships over time, and give them what they need instead of just pushing stuff in their direction.

What’s one of the biggest advances in your industry over the past two years?

In terms of raw foods, things are shifting away from being very strict, and moving toward welcoming everyone to try eating this way a little bit more.

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

1. The first is time management. I would be reading email and responding to them then I click on a link in an email and all of sudden a lot of time has elapsed and I realize that I have not done any work. So what I do is frequently check the time and see how I am doing and ask myself if I have done what I said I was going to do by that time of the day and that is how I handle that threat.
2. Another threat I would say is misinformation. When people hear the term raw foods, they immediately think it’s all or nothing, but the way that I teach it is you can eat fresh fruits and vegetables and get the benefits from that. You do not have to be that strict with yourself.
3. And the third threat kind of relates to the first idea is that I have a lot of passion and am prone to go off on a tangent and do something new and different that does not necessarily relate to what I am doing right now. The way that I deal with this is to focus on what my goals are and where I am headed.

What’s unique about the service that you provide?

I like to make it fun, informal, down-to-earth and accessible to anyone who is remotely interested in getting healthier, and I like to deliver all my stuff online except for a few things that I deliver personally, which I enjoy. I love to do videos and recipes that are simple so everyone can get their hands dirty. And what’s really fun about the way that I teach things is that I am known as the witch so I like to bring in a special magic feeling to everything that I do.

What do you observe most people in your field doing badly that you think you do well?

Most people in my field do not have the type of technical background that I have so I am able to have interactive technologies and videos on my website and this may not be easy for them.

Describe a major business (or other) challenge you had and how you resolved it.

One of the challenges that I had in the beginning was getting people to visit my website and get interested in my services. I think that’s also a challenge that many people face. I resolved the challenge by writing something that really connected with my audience. In the beginning when I was writing articles, blog posts, I was really writing for myself. I was writing stuff that was useful for my colleagues and myself, but not useful to those who were new to raw foods. So just shifting to write about what raw foods is, and how you sprout your own nuts and seeds and dehydrate stuff has made a difference and my business took off.

What lessons did you learn in the process?

I learned to really listen to my people and when I had no readers to listen to I learned to use Google Keywords to identify what people were searching for in my field. I learned to shift my mindset to what my customers were thinking.

Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

My big break happened last October about Halloween time. I basically did a big launch, had done a speaking engagement, another audio interview and a couple of radio that same week. It was an accumulation of all these speaking events and giving talks about raw foods that pushed things over the edge and made the launch a big success for me. One talk was at The Big Carrot in Toronto, Canada and I did some online podcasts.

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

Before the big launch that I did, I tried to do something similar to provide a program for people, and it really didn’t resonate with anyone. It didn’t connect with my audience and my offering wasn’t quite right, the timing wasn’t right either. It was a failure in that I launched a product that didn’t take off, but it was useful to me to see what it took to create a program like that, the time it took and what people really wanted. Learning from that helped me down the line to achieve success.

What has been your biggest disappointment in your life – and what are you doing to prevent its reoccurrence?

I always felt that I had this knowledge of what I was meant to do and it had something to do with health, but I became a programmer because I was very idealistic and thought that I could create software that would lead to finding the cure for cancer or something like that. I guess I was very disappointed that things didn’t turn out the way the way I expected. That has made me think about how I make decisions and my expectations of the world. These days I think about my decisions very differently from back then. I was pretty young when I made that decision.

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

The toughest decision that I made was to turn down a job offer and go out on my own to start a business. I had a job offer to work on Wall Street in New York City and I also had it in my mind that I wanted to travel and visit China. My boyfriend Robin is from China and I wanted to visit his family. So I made the decision to turn down the job offer and figure out what I’d do when I returned from China. It was a very tough decision to make but it turned out very well.

What are three events that helped to shape your life?

1. I am a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and one of the events which shaped me was attending a big competition in the US and winning a medal there. And it was great to see what it was like outside of my tiny home town in Ontario. The experience built my self confidence.
2. Another event also occurred when I was younger. I participated in a forum for young Canadians. A bunch of high school students were brought to Ottawa, Canada and we talked about politics and how to change the world and it made me realize that we are all in this together and how we take action is how we differ.
3. I lived in California for four months for an internship and just being there, meeting people and attending a seminar was really life changing for me to be around people with different mindsets. Being there started bubbling some of my business ideas.

What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?

Being in business right now.

How did mentors influence your life?

Mentors influenced my life a lot! One of my mentors was my tae kwon do instructor and she was very influential in giving me self confidence. It was good to have someone who believed in me and wanted to see me go far. Other mentors were very instrumental, especially in business, and women I met online were very motivational to me and gave me the power and courage to step out and do this.

What’s one core message you received from your mentors?

Trust yourself, listen to your intuition, and take action.

Which resources (books, movies, training etc.) did your mentors recommend to you?

One of the ones I liked was a book called Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port. Other books recommended are all the books by Seth Godin and the Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy.

As an Invisible Mentor, what is one piece of advice that you would give to readers?

Trust yourself that what you are doing is going to work, put yourself out there and show people that you care and build relationships. Stick to what you are doing and don’t give up when things aren’t going well.

What nuggets can you take away from Nathalie’s interview?

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know what you think about this.  Click on the comment link 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 left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

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I have always prided myself on being very aware and having excellent observation skills, but every so often something happens, which takes me down a notch or two and reminds me that there is always room for improvement.

There are lessons to learn every day.

In 2003, my niece and I traveled to Grenada for the Caribbean Gift and Craft Show held in late September. As is our practice when we travel, based on recommendations from the hotel where we were staying, we hired a local as our tour guide.

We spent quite some time on a tour of a Nutmeg Factory. Having grown up in Jamaica, I was familiar with nutmegs, but I assumed that you used the nutmeg straight from the tree. I had no idea of the intricacies involved in the entire production process. During the tour, I learned that the nutmeg is separated from the mace which is subsequently used in lipstick manufacturing. The nutmeg is used as a spice, but in recent years it has also been used to make essential oils, which is good for pain relief.

Look around you, what incorrect assumptions are you making?

Life is a gift, take nothing for granted.

Again in 2007, my niece and I traveled to China for an international conference. For our trip, we booked a 4-day tour for Beijing before we traveled to Shanghai for the more formal part of our trip.

Being in Beijing reminded me of how much I take for granted. A normally simple task such as ordering in a restaurant became a major event because we did not speak the language. And, the menus did not have photos so we could not point to a dish indicating that that’s what we wanted to order.

I felt completely out of my element. Later that night, while lying on my bed in the hotel room, I was reminded of what it feels like to not be included, and to me this was a perfect lesson to be always mindful of how I treat others, and to make the extra effort to make others feel included. I have been at networking events and did not reach out to others who clearly appeared uncomfortable because I told myself that I was an introvert, so let the other person take on the responsibility.

What are simple things you can do to make others feel welcome and like they belong?

Because you are certain it is so, does not mean it is so.

There was an exercise in Did You Spot the Gorilla?: How to Recognise the Hidden Opportunities in Your Life by Richard Wiseman, where you had to fill in the missing numbers on the face of a clock with Roman numerals. I completed the exercise in seconds and thought how easy the exercise was. I was wrong! It turns out that in nearly all instances, except for the Big Ben in London, the number four is represented as IIII on clocks and watches and not IV. Richard Wiseman is from the United Kingdom so I automatically thought that this had to be a UK phenomenon.

The next day I went looking for clocks with Roman numerals and discovered that the number four was indeed represented as IIII. I always prided myself on being very observant, so I was shocked that I didn’t notice this before. I asked many of my friends if they had ever noticed that the four was written as IIII and not IV, and I was very pleased when they all answered no.

It appears that when the brains come across anything over and over, it tends to switch off. How many things do we miss because our brains are switched off?  And are we operating on automatic pilot?

To learn from my lessons, give your life a shake up, be aware of what is going on around you, and be grateful and appreciative for all the good you have in your life now.

• Each night before you go to sleep give thanks for three things that you are grateful for
• Be a tourist in your own city
• Participate in cultural events other than your own
• Attend a live theatre performance
• Eat at different restaurants
• Start a conversation with a stranger
• Perform a task a different way
• Hop on the train and ride it to the end of the line, get off and explore the area
• Identify five other ways you can give your life a shake up

Each day we should be striving to be better, and these are simple things we can do to evolve and blossom into the person we were meant to be.

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Photo Credit: Avil Beckford Laughing Buddha in Beijing Restaurant