Some Badass Czech Historical Figures

Last week's Get Some Victory newsletter laid out some ways to overview historical eras and nations for inspirational people to learn from - artists, statesmen, businessmen, inventors, or whatever else appeals to you.

At the end of it, I asked readers to send me a line if they knew a great story I should know about. Simon Payne wrote in from the Czech Republic to share some very impressive Czech historical figures who I hadn't heard about before. I enjoyed reading this a lot, and he kindly agreed to let me post this. Here's Simon -

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This email has got me thinking and after while I came up with a name I'm sure you have not hear of and is actually pretty interesting persona.

On Brilliance and Consolidation

In any field, brilliant maneuvers are remembered and celebrated. But brilliant maneuvers without consolidation amounts to nothing long-term except the empty glory.

We could look at military commanders for an example. There's been some in history that have shown remarkable amounts of brilliance in pioneering tactics and doing crazy maneuvers. These sorts of things go into the history books, like Hannibal Barca's actions or Napoleon Bonaparte's.

Despite Barca and Bonaparte being remembered for their brilliance, it's worth remembering that neither of them won in the end.

We've talked about over-expansiveness in the past and not trusting your successors/family to keep up with your work, which is a common flaw that afflicts low born creators and leaders. Today, I want to look at something a little bit different - on brilliant actions and consolidating actions.

One time, when Hannibal's troops were pinned down by the Romans and it looked like all would be lost, he came up with a brilliant scheme. He waited until nightfall, and then took all of the oxen in his camp, tied branches and tinder to their horns, and lit them on fire and drove them off.