Think Like a Conqueror: Lessons from History’s Greatest Leaders, Champions, and Heroes

THINK LIKE A CONQUEROR:

Lessons from History’s Greatest Leaders, Champions, and Heroes

By Peter Hollins,

Author and Researcher at petehollins.com

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--Subconscious Triggers

-- Emotional Intelligence

-- Influencing and Analyzing People

Table of Contents

Introduction

Catherine the Great

Showcase your bravery to inspire trust

Practice soft power

Find a balance

Dan’s story

King Hammurabi

Hold yourself to high standards

Organize yourself with simplicity and consistency

Ruby’s story

Cleopatra

Adapt by leveraging your unique strengths

Use storytelling to win people over

Be bold, but always have a strategy

Diana’s story

Ernest Shackleton

Craft buoyant moments of connection

Rewrite the blueprint when necessary

Elevate through empathy-driven leadership

Jacob’s story

Sun Tzu

Know your terrain

Adapt like water

Choose your battles

Ben’s story

Joan of Arc

Your core beliefs are your anchor

Transform doubt into momentum

Be visible in your commitments

Natalie’s story

Alexander the Great

Take bold, fearless, direct action to solve problems

Identify your empire

Lead from the front

Eric’s story

Genghis Kahn

Look for merit, and focus on loyalty and unity

Be open to learning from ALL sources

Leverage psychological advantage in negotiations

Elizabeth’s story

Empress Wu Zetian

Turn adversity into a stepping stone

Champion merit in your sphere

Challenge norms with quiet strength

Aidan’s story

Julius Caesar

Redefine the rules with purpose

Make your words stick

Cultivate strategic presence in every encounter

Terry’s story

Introduction

It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.

-      Sir Edmund Hillary

What is a conqueror?

The dictionary tells us that a conqueror vanquishes, defeats, or subjugates a people or a place, i.e., military conquest. But we can expand the definition and see that we conquer any time we overcome or take control of something –and that something could include our own weaknesses and fears. When we take our fate into our own hands, when we claim territory beyond our limits, and when we defeat those things that stand in the way of what we most yearn for, then we are conquerors.

Whether you have an ambitious professional goal, yearn to master an art or skill, or need the courage to overcome your own secret weakness or fear, the classic military model of victory can reveal a lot about the nature of psychological victory.

This book is all about the unique mindset and attitude most associated with overcoming adversity, triumphing in battle, and taking control, whether the battlefield is literal or allegorical. To this end, we will be examining the lives of ten key historical figures lauded for their ability to not only overcome obstacles but to rule over them.

Now, chances are that you don’t have much in common with an ancient Mesopotamian king or an ancient Roman consul. And yet, each of us has a dragon to slay, a demon to overpower, or a mountain to climb. This is why our exploration won’t stop at the legends of the great heroes of the past and will also include real-life, everyday examples of ordinary people living with bravery, self-definition, and purpose.

What does a conqueror do?

If you want to be physically fit, identify someone who is already fit, and do what they do. If you want to succeed academically or make a success of a new business venture, find people who have done just that, and emulate them. However, when it comes to true mastery, leadership, and self-determination, this approach is not enough.

Why? Because a conqueror never asks, What do others do? What are the rules I should follow? Who is in charge and how shall I go about getting permission…?

Rather, the great leaders and conquers of old were so successful precisely because they did not do as others did. They did not always follow the rules, nor respect prevailing authority. They defied conventions, reached for what they wanted, and pressed on, even when others were ready to give up in exhaustion or fear.

That is why this book will not contain a list of suggested tips and tricks you can try in order to mimic other people. Instead, we will be focusing on the mindset and character out of which certain actions predictably emerge. In cultivating that mindset in ourselves, we find our own authentic strength and conviction and become more like conquerors in our own right.

What does a conqueror do? Well, great men and women from the annuls of history have adopted widely differing strategies. The Art of War author Sun Tzu tells us to ponder and deliberate before you make a move, but Julius Caesar might have countered with, act first, ask questions later. Empress Wu Zetian of China might advise murdering your enemies; Catherine the Great would suggest inviting them to dinner, instead. Alexander the Great styled himself a divine son of Zeus, while Genghis Kahn framed himself as something akin to a natural disaster, claiming, I am the punishment of god.

All these people conquered, but they did so in very, very different ways. What are we to make of these differences? That it’s not the actions themselves, but the attitude that gives birth to those actions. Every life circumstance is different, and every challenge unique. Thus, a skilled and triumphant response will not always look the same.

Being a conqueror, then, is not a question of what, but of how. And that’s what this book is all about.

How a conqueror thinks

In the chapters that follow, you will not find any lists, hacks, or step-by-step instructions. Instead, you will find something more valuable: questions.

This book cannot tell you what the most intelligent, most noble course of action is in your life right now. It cannot convince you to walk away from those things that are holding you prisoner, nor can it fight battles on your behalf. It can’t magically remove what is currently frustrating or draining you.

What it can do, however, is prompt you to start seeking and claiming these things in yourself. You are the only person who can be a conqueror in your own life. In answering these questions, you begin the important inner work that with time will result in hard-won, genuine accomplishment. There is no cheat code. The historical greats mentioned in this book did not have one, either.

As with life itself, you get out what you put in. The greatest and truest ideas will only ever have value when applied, and applied skillfully. The conqueror doesn’t just ask questions, but takes inspired action given the answers they discover. If you do nothing, this book will be an interesting, but forgettable abstract experience. If you ask yourself questions, if you seek to answer honestly and take action to apply what you learn, however, then you are already behaving like a conqueror–and you will be reading an entirely different book.

The details of what a conqueror does are largely unimportant–one course of action may be the right move in one context, and the wrong move in another. The conqueror mindset is what matters because it is what allows you to discern your best course of action in every moment, and seize that possibility with decisive and proactive control. A conqueror does not passively live out their lives inside pre-existing limitations. Instead, they redefine the limits. They forcefully reshape the narrative towards their own ends. They make themselves.

Despite their differences, the people in this book do have some notable traits in common. They’ve all possessed rock-solid self-belief and marched to the beat of their own drums. They were all, in their own ways, fearless, determined, and more than a little audacious. They made a name for themselves, and they did it with persistent, active strength. They all possessed the mindset of a conqueror.

By learning to think in the way they thought, we too can cultivate the rare attitudes, priorities, and perspectives that made them the successes they are. But first…

A caveat

Let’s be blunt: Some of the people discussed in this book, though undeniable conquerors, are by no means always good people. Ernest Shackleton’s most famous voyage was a full-blown failure, and King Hammurabi sanctioned slavery. Alexander the Great had a drinking problem. Cleopatra killed three of her own siblings, Empress Wu killed her own baby, and Genghis Kahn killed… well, everyone.

Our list of ten notable conquerors includes wealthy aristocrats, murderers, and miscellaneous megalomaniacs. We are not required to agree with or condone their lives in order to learn something from them.

Not everyone on our list is even a success in their chosen field, nor are they a conqueror in every area of their lives. Many on our list racked up multiple failed marriages, had neglected social lives, and were horrible parents. We consider these people not because they might be moral role models, but rather because their lives serve as powerful archetypal representations of specific principles.

The people on our list demonstrate the power of certain perspectives, beliefs, and styles of living–those which, when applied more moderately, can bring success to our own lives. By observing the extreme lives of these historical figures, we can begin to distill those elements that set them apart and allowed them to conquer.

At the end of every chapter, you’ll be encouraged to reflect and take inspired action in your own life. While these historical figures were certainly great in their own right, by the time you’re done reading this book, I hope you’ll have a strengthened sense of what your own great life looks like, and how you might conquer those things that are standing in your way. All that’s needed is a little patience, an open mind, and the willingness to try something new. Let’s dive in.

Catherine the Great

One does not always do the best there is. One does the best one can.

-      Catherine the Great

Ruling for 34 years, from 1762 until her death in 1796, Catherine, Empress of Russia, started life as a minor German royal. She would eventually overthrow her own husband, Tsar Peter III, to become one of the most celebrated and influential rulers in history. She was then, and is now, known as the Great, but what exactly constituted her greatness? What made Catherine a conqueror?

To understand this, we need to understand a little about Russia at the time of her birth in May 1729. She was born Princess Sophie Auguste Friederike of Anhalt-Zerbst in Germany (more correctly, in the kingdom of Prussia), and was rechristened Catherine in 1744, when she converted to Russian Orthodox Christianity at 14. (We will stick with Catherine for our uses here.) Unlike other historical figures we’ll explore in this book, she in no way came from humble beginnings. She was born into the ruling house of Anhalt, and her cousins Gustav III and Charles XIII reigned as kings of Sweden. Other members of her aristocratic