One way I’ve been managing to get through so many books & biographies this year is, I always have 3 I’m reading at the same time:
One book is in my office’s bathroom for daily, er, deposits of knowledge.
Another book is on my nightstand.
And, I always have an audio book I’m listening to for when I’m on a 10-mile walk, taking a shower, or simply embarking on a long drive.
The audio book I’m wading through currently is about:
President Andrew Jackson.
i.e. Old Hickory
Despite him doing & advocating controversial things that sound horrifying to people today, there is a long list of lessons to learn about success and business by studying the life of this extremely flawed, but high-achieving man, who was so popular with his fans, the 2 thousand or so people who stormed the White House just to be around him after his inauguration packed the rooms so tightly, they couldn’t even leave except by going out windows. In fact, mobs of people lined up wherever he went, forcing him to sneak out back doors and other such maneuvers, such was his popularity.
One of these lessons of which is how raw Will Power moves mountains.
I wonder if he might have been one of the strongest Willed men who ever lived.
Take for example, the constant pain he was in.
This guy spent a lifetime of engaging in all kinds of conflicts & fights — from his teenage years fighting redcoat soldiers (who butchered people in the most gruesome of ways) one-on-one during the Revolutionary War, to engaging in duels to the death with probably dozens of people, to leading militias, then the US Army, and then the nation itself as President.
All of which took hair-raising tolls on his health, to say the least.
Take the duels to the death he was in.
He got shot and injured at times.
And, thus, had severe lead poisoning much of his life as a result. In fact, some samples of his hair were analyzed 100 years or so after his death, and his body had 20 times more lead in it than what is considered safe.
And that lead poisoning kept him in perpetual agony.
So much so, his soldiers said he was often just 3 steps away from collapsing.
His abdomen was constantly on fire, violently vomiting out of the blue, and shaking and sweating, ready to pass out in the saddle on the way to battles. His temper flared out of control at the slightest thing causing him to blow up at people for little or no reason. And he was often nauseous, bedridden for sometimes weeks, and had written numerous letters about how this was it, he was done, going to retire, etc… only to be back leading another battle to victory over one enemy or another.
He was just someone who refused to back down from a fight.
Or, really, any kind of conflict.
In fact, he thrived on it.
Every time he was bedridden with yet another health problem, thinking he was going to retire (and this was before he was even President), he’d hear of another battle coming up, and suddenly his health and pain levels returned to a manageable level and he’d be off to the races.
It’s why they called him Old Hickory in the first place.
He was not a large, imposing man by any means.
He was tall & thin, and non imposing.
Yet he controlled the minds and Will of other men and armies — including great men of war and politics — who observed his toughness made him like a hickory branch:
Thin and bendable, but hard to break.
i.e. the exact opposite of most people in business or anywhere else today.
Whatever the case, there are many more lessons and insights in this book — including one I talk about in the bonus insert that is going out with the 100th issue of “Email Players”, in the list of the 13 most important biographies I’ve read so far. The volume I talk about in that insert even has to do with how to create a horde of fans who will lift you and your brand almost as high as you want, like Andrew Jackson used to be lifted right into being President — despite being born a common man (he’d be mocked as a redneck hick by the city slickers in New York, especially, today) with no family connections to the political elite.
There are over two dozens books about Andrew Jackson on Amazon.
But if you want the title of the one I am referring to, as well as the other biographies (all just as fascinating in their own ways, in my opinion) I recommend, here’s what to do:
1. Go to the URL below
2. Subscribe to “Email Players” before the deadline Thursday
3. When your newsletter arrives, find the bonus insert and read the biography part, and check it out
To get it while there’s still a wee bit ‘o time, go here:
Ben Settle
