Growing up, many of us played the game 20 Questions where you had to guess what something or someone was based only on asking yes or no questions. When playing with another person, they could make it almost impossible to guess the correct answer because they picked a subject that was incredibly obscure. With the advances in technology, specifically artificial intelligence, you can play 20 Questions with a bot and it’s probably going to get the answer right every time.

At this point, you may already be familiar with the Akinator app and website. Akinator, a genie-like character, first asks whether you’re going to be thinking up a character, object, or animal. From there, the questions get more specific until Akinator guesses precisely what you were thinking of. The accuracy of the AI is beyond impressive, with a success rate of over 99 percent.

Akinator has been around possibly longer than you thought, with its initial release coming back in 2007. The AI was designed by a tech company called Elokence, a French-based operation with only a handful of employees. In their own words, Elokence “develops and markets intelligent services to man-machine dialogue allowing access to complex information databases through natural language to make them intelligible to users with diverse levels of knowledge.”

From Spongebob Squarepants to God, Akinator seems to be able to know every person to ever exist, both real and fictional. No matter how popular or obscure the subject is, Akinator is likely to guess it right, even all the way down to your personal alter-ego. Many want to know how Akinator works and how it was developed, but Elokence has been rather quiet about the inner workings of Akinator.

On the official website, Elokence says that two friends named Arnaud and Jeff were camelback riding through Egypt when they stumbled upon a genie’s lamp, and thus Akinator followed them to France when they couldn’t stump him. We’ll go ahead and chalk this up as a teensy bit of an embellishment.

The real story is that Elokence, which really was just a couple of people at the time, set out to use the information and communications technology for laboratory research. They did this by using a program they developed called Limule. Elokence found that the same AI could be used for entertainment purposes and Akinator was the public’s first taste of the algorithm. What exactly Limule contains and how it operates, though, is “our little secret” according to Elokence.

Ever since Akinator was first introduced, the public has helped to make the algorithm much stronger by introducing questions for the AI to ask and adding potential answers. Even YouTubers with just a couple hundred subscribers are included in Akinator’s knowledge database, so stumping him has become more difficult by the day.

Akinator has become one of the most popular apps around the world, thanks in large part to its ability to be able to communicate in more than a dozen languages. This includes English, French, Spanish, Japanese, and many more. Between word of mouth and great reviews from critics and users alike, Akinator exploded in popularity after being around for a few years and has become a staple of the internet ever since.

Akinator has become so popular over the years that it can even be enabled on Amazon Alexa devices. So when you have friends and family over and you’re looking for a quick and fun game, you can all take turns trying to stump some of the smartest AI in the world. If you’re able to be one of the lucky ones to stump Akinator, he’ll ask you to add what you were thinking of to the database to make him even more capable of getting the right answers in the future.

There are a lot of popular game apps that have come and gone over the years, while only a few break from being just a flavor of the month and becoming a mainstay on phones around the world. Among those that achieved quick popularity and have held onto it ever since is “2048”, a game that was released in March of 2014 and became an overnight success. With tens of thousands of players each day, “2048” stimulates your brain by sliding numbered tiles together to achieve a summation of “2048”.

“2048” was developed by Italian developer Gabriele Cirulli while using JavaScript and CSS, and within two months was all over the app stores for both Android and iOS. While most would think that it takes months to develop software like that, Cirulli actually did it in just one weekend as a way to kill some time.

When “2048” was made, Cirulli had just graduated high school the year before and was toying around with web development and doing freelance work instead of going to college. Within weeks of its mobile app release, millions of people were trying their hand at getting to the coveted 2048 total. However, of the first 100 million games of “2048” that were played, only one percent of those people were able to win.

The popularity of “2048” was very similar to that of “Flappy Bird” which came out around the same time. “Flappy Bird” was the game that everyone was trying to break their own high score in, but the app was taken off of mobile stores after its creator didn’t want much to do with it anymore. “2048” has remained, however, with many still coming back each day to try their hand at finally reaching the mountaintop.

For Cirulli, he didn’t foresee his weekend project becoming a global phenomenon. “I really didn’t think about it becoming as successful as it is,” he said. The game is based on the similar “1024”, which Cirulli expanded upon with his more popular version. “I really liked 1024, but I felt like the pace was a bit slow,” he said. “And that was one of the reasons why I built 2048.”

Part of the reason that “2048” became public was that the core idea had already been done, with the “1024” developers being a bit irked that the newer game was more popular. “I didn’t feel good about keeping it private, since it was heavily based off of someone else’s work,” Cirulli said. “Once I was done with the game, I published it on GitHub Pages.”

Cirulli wasn’t looking to use “2048” as a ‘get rich quick scheme,’ either. Instead of advertisements, Cirulli placed a donation link on the app and received a few hundred dollars at the height of the game’s popularity. What was more important to him, though, was that potential career prospects started pouring in for the then-teenager.

“I have received a few important job offers in Italy and abroad,” Cirulli said. “I am either going to pursue my own project, which will not be game related. I was never really in the game industry.” Since then, Cirulli has taken on a role as a designer and developer for 1Password which safely keeps all of a user’s passwords in one location so that they don’t have to be remembered or written down.

Cirulli has also worked on projects that include Plantie which allows users to manage their plants, as well as Budge, a budgeting app that provides real-time analysis and data. Due to his disinterest in the game development world, it’s unlikely that we’ll see a true successor to “2048”, at least from Cirulli. Still, he has given us a game that will live on forever as we try to reach that elusive total.

For just over six years, there were over 5,000 battles that made up World War II, perhaps the most well known conflict in human history. It has been nearly 80 years since the war’s conclusion, but there are certain battles that still stand out and are talked about to this day. Here are some of those key battles that had razor thin margins for victory on either side.

5. Battle of Stalingrad

Starting in August of 1942 and lasting for just over five months, the Battle of Stalingrad was fought by the Soviets alone against the Axis in one of the bloodiest battles in human history. The Soviets were outnumbered initially, but more people joined the cause and eventually there were over 1 million Soviets in total. More than 1.1 million Soviets lost their while over 800,000 Axis, but the Soviet resolve resulted in a narrow victory that decimated the German and Italian armies.

4. Battle of Normandy

Perhaps the most famous battle of World War II, Operation Overlord saw over a dozen Allied countries storm the beaches of France and it was a rough start for the Allies. The Allies would recover, though, establishing a stronghold that would then expand into France to help recapture the country. All in all, the casualties were over 225,000 for the Allies and 288,000 for the Axis over the course of nearly three months. The narrow battle has been well documented, especially in film.

3. Battle of Iwo Jima

Another one of those well documented battles that we still see recreated on the big screen today, the Battle of Iwo Jima took place between only the United States and Japan in the latter country’s Volcano Islands. In terms of logistics, this should have been an easy battle for the Americans. There was no land for Japan to retreat and the air/water support made it so that the U.S. wouldn’t lose in the long run, but Japan still put up a fight for more than a month. Iwo Jima turned into a U.S. base at the cost of 27,000 casualties.

2. Battle of Crete

While the Greek army wasn’t a big player in World War II, the country’s land still played a big part with their ~11,000 soldiers that fought to defend Crete from Germany and Italy. Along with the U.K., New Zealand and Australia, the Allies fought off the Axis invasion at first, but things started to go south. When reinforcements from Germany arrived, the Allies fought hard for nearly two weeks but came up short as the Axis claimed victory on June 1, 1941. However, German forces lost a lot of aircraft in the battle that would play a big part in the final years of war.

1. Battle of the Bulge

In the most pivotal battle of World War II, the Germans had a plan to completely surround the Allied forces and could’ve won them the war. What resulted, though, was the Battle of the Bulge being fought in several countries including Belgium and Germany. It took the final weeks of 1944 and first few weeks of 1945 to complete, but the Battle of the Bulge was an even fight that was ultimately won by the Allies, setting up the completion of the war.

Were they insane when they rose to ultimate power, or did the power they possessed cause these men to become deranged? History is filled with dictators who had one thing in common … they thought more of their own personal wealth, power and glory than for the well-being and happiness of their fellow countrymen.

Is there something about absolute power that drives a person absolutely insane? Let’s take a look at five dictators who should help you make up your mind.

Francois Duvalier

Haitian dictator and medical doctor Francois Duvalier held power in Haiti from 1957 to 1971.

Duvalier claimed to be Baron Samdi, the Voodoo spirit of death. He also claimed responsibility for John F. Kennedy’s assassination by way of a Voodoo curse. He sent someone to collect the air around Kennedy’s grave which he would then use to control Kennedy’s soul.

During his reign, Duvalier indoctrinated Haitian children with a political catechism that included his variant of The Lord’s Prayer which began like this, “Our Doc, who are in the National Palace for life, hallowed be Thy name by present and future generations …”

In 1958, Clement Barbot led a failed coup to overthrow Duvalier. When a manhunt failed to find Barbot, Duvalier imagined Barbot had transformed into a black dog. Duvalier subsequently had all black dogs in Haiti shot.

Kim Jong-il

Kim Jong-il was the supreme leader of North Korea between 1994 and 2011. Beliefs circulated in his “official” biography stated that Kim had the power to control the weather and that he neither urinated nor defecated.

Kim was a huge fan of James Bond films which he believed to be documentaries. Perhaps that’s why he traveled with his own bevy of beautiful women referred to as his “Pleasure Squad.”

North Korean news sources were forced to report that he was the greatest golfer to ever exist, consistently finishing 38 under par and averaging four or five holes-in-one every single game.

While his people suffered and starved under economic hardships, he lived lavishly. Special flights from Japan delivered expensive cuts of sushi. He had a 1,000-bottle wine cellar and over 20 thousand Hollywood movies. He spent $350,000 on brandy and $20 million importing 200 Mercedes-Benz luxury sedans.

Francisco Macias Nguema

Francisco Macias Nguema was dictator of Equatorial Guinea from 1968 until his overthrow in 1979. As the son of a witch doctor, Nguema believed he too had magical powers. After saying that his powers would keep the power plant running, the entire capital remained in darkness. He shut down hospitals and Western medicine was banned in favor of his witch doctor powers.

He was responsible for the exile or death of more than half of the 300,000 people who lived in Equatorial Guinea, giving the nation the nickname, “Dachau of Africa.” His execution methods, which included crucifixion, were gruesome. He executed the governor of the public bank and hid all the money under his jungle hut bed. He ordered the execution of all his mistresses’ former lovers. He had a huge collection of human skulls which he used to talk to ghosts.

He abolished the word “intellectual” and closed all libraries and schools. All people who wore glasses were executed.

He changed the national motto to, “There is no other God than Macias Nguema.”  He was executed by firing because his magical doctor powers couldn’t stop bullets either.

Saparmurat Niyazov

Saparmurat Niyazov was first elected president of Turkmenistan and then later became dictator, serving between 1985 and 2006.

Niyazov authored a book, Ruhnama, which means “Book of the Soul.” It was to be given equal respect to the Quran in mosques, otherwise the mosques faced demolition. School students were required to read it. People had to memorize it to get a driver’s license. Niyazov informed the citizens of Turkmenistan that he had an agreement with Allah, that anyone reading the book three times would automatically go to heaven. Niyazov even sent a copy into space for aliens to read.

He instituted many strange rules and regulations. People were to chew on bones to preserve their teeth instead of seeking dental care. Recorded music, car radios and lip-syncing were outlawed. Young men were not allowed to grow beards or long hair.

Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein, who ruled over Iraq between 1979 and 2003, based his regime on one of his hero’s – Stalin. He tortured and murdered thousands of his own people, believing he had to rule with an iron fist to keep his country intact – it was divided by religion and ethnicity.

Although using blood to write the Quran is forbidden in every sect, branch and offshoot of Islam, that didn’t stop Hussein. He had blood regularly withdrawn over a two-year period – a total of 27 liters. This blood was used to transcribe 605 pages of the Quran. Blood donations experts say it would take at least nine years to safely donate that much blood.

Speaking of books, Zabiba and the King, is thought to be written by Hussein. The CIA isn’t convinced he wrote it, however, but credits him with at least supervising its writing.

History is an exciting subject that can take you through time to experience the world from other people’s perspectives. It is not just a list of names and dates, but rather the story of cultures, including the rise and fall of empires, the introduction of new inventions, and how our modern cultures came to be. 

Introducing history to children well can help them appreciate this exciting subject. Here are some key strategies to help your kids learn history and build a love for the subject.

Introduce quality historical fiction

Good historical fiction books can bring time periods alive. Rather than just reading boring recitations of who did what and when they did it, historical fiction creates a world that the child can envision and better understand. They can see the historical world through the eyes of someone they can relate to and start to see their own place in history. It will help them imagine what it might have been like to live during different periods, which will then help them make sense of all the changes and events that took place in the lives of the characters. 

Use hands-on learning

Some of the best memories people have of their school days come from exciting projects, and history can be full of them. Hands-on learning experiences, such as using heavy whipping cream to make butter in the classroom or learning how to knit, can help children better appreciate the type of chores children their age may have done a few hundred years ago. They will then find it easier to relate to the children of the past and associate fun and excitement with this subject. An interest in history inspired by projects can then carry the students through other types of learning. 

Use timelines

Timelines can be a great way to help children organize dates. Often, history classes cover so many different cultures and events that everything can start to feel muddled together. A timeline helps to lay everything out so that people can see and understand what was going on in China at the same time as Rome and South America. History will start to make more sense. 

Visit museums

Explore and visit museums so children can personally see items from earlier eras. Rather than looking at pictures, they can see objects that people hundreds, or even thousands, of years ago touched and used. This will also help history come alive and inspire interest in the student. 

Speak to those who have lived it

First-hand accounts are immensely beneficial in history. For modern history, find community elders who lived through certain events. They can tell their story about different wars and the historical events and changes in their lifetime. 

If you want to teach children about events older than modern history, you can seek out first-person accounts of the targeted events. They can also help the historical narrative become more alive and interesting for children as they start to imagine what living back then was like.

History is an exciting subject, helping to educate current generations about the past so that we can all better understand our place in history. If you want to inspire children about the subject, consider incorporating some of these ideas to make the subject more engaging and interesting for these younger learners.

 

Now that the oldest Gen Zs have hit 25 and Millennials reluctantly tiptoe into their 40s, you may wonder what’s so different about these two generations.

A lot.

Some describe Gen Z as being more aligned with Gen X, while Millennials best align with their generational archnemesis, the Boomers (Millennials coined the phrase, “OK, Boomer” to describe their disdain for the older generation). In many ways, Gen Z is a more extreme version of the Millennials, much to their chagrin. Check out these 5 key differences between the Millennial generation and Gen Z.

Personal Relationships and Sexuality

Millennials consider themselves progressive in relationships, as they generally waited longer into their early 30s to marry and openly supported gay marriage. Gen Z makes Millennials look prudish. They condone any and all forms of (healthy) relationships and have added multiple letters to the LGBTQ acronym. They are much more open about their sexuality and show few signs of interest in marriage or having children, as they express concern about the future of the planet and humankind.

Technology First

Although millennials came of age during the technology boom, Gen Z was born into it. Millennials are credited with the creation and popularization of the selfie and influencer. Gen Z was born with an iPhone in their hands. They’ve never known life without cell phones, streaming, and always-on internet.

Stability vs. Independence

Studies show that millennials are increasingly looking for stability in their work environments. On the other hand, Gen Z is shaping up to be the entrepreneurs of the future. Why? Look at the economy during their youth. Millennials grew up during a time of great economic strength and prosperity. Gen Z faced the great recession during their childhood. As a result, Gen Z wants to create a startup and personalize their own independent work environment. Working for a big corporation is much less appealing to this generational cohort.

Traditional Education

Millennials who attended college often accumulated massive debt as the price of higher education skyrocketed. To add insult to injury, the jobs they expected post-college didn’t materialize. Now, many continue to drown in educational debt as the government continues to grapple with the challenge of how to help alleviate this burden. Unsurprisingly, Gen Z, who grew up in a time of financial uncertainty, are less motivated to attend college. They see the vast debt facing Millennials and wonder aloud if they need a college education to become their own boss. Many are taking alternative routes to education, including tapping into growing on-demand learning choices to learn the skills needed to pursue their dreams.

Social Issues

Gen Z is all about authenticity. Aside from their open and supportive stance on sexuality, they are also leading the way in removing the stigma around mental health. In fact, more Gen Zers have gone to therapy than their Millennial counterparts. Gen Z individuals are more likely to be open about their problems and look to seek help. Unsurprisingly, Gen Z is more active in social justice issues than Millennials.

 In many ways, from technology to sexuality, Gen Z is seen as an extreme version of the Millennials. As each cohort ages, the cultural changes will be fascinating to watch.

Great philosophers ponder many things. They are known for their brilliant insights. Some philosophers’ insights may help with your motivation to achieve life goals in surprising ways.

Aristotle

The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle (384 to 322 BC), who studied under Plato, proposed the concept that having a purpose causes a person to take action. This motivation is what we now call having a purposeful life.

Regarding motivation, Aristotle said, “Pleasure in the work puts perfection in the job.” and “Well begun is half done.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on May 25, 1803. He led the transcendentalism movement in America and published its journal, The Dial. The movement refused to accept any authority other than themselves. He wrote the book called, Self-Reliance. He believed that each person must make their own decisions about religion, humanity, and the world.

Emerson said, regarding motivation, “The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be. Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.”

Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau, born on July 12, 1817, was an American author and philosopher. He promoted transcendentalism, which considers people to be inherently good. He lived in a shack next to a pond on a piece of land owned by Ralph Waldo Emerson. He wrote the book “Walden.” The book is about his deep connection with nature and the benefits of having a simple life.

He also wrote an essay, “Civil Disobedience,” which explains his belief in disobeying the rules of an unjust government. He was against slavery and went to jail for not paying his taxes. Luckily, his relatives bailed him out and paid his back taxes.

Thoreau recommended living simply in a natural setting. He said, “What you get from achieving your goals is not as important as what you become from achieving your goals. If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.”

Confucius

Confucius was a philosopher from China who lived around 550 B.C. He is known for his many wise sayings. His wisdom spread worldwide and is the source of many popular expressions in America, even when people do not realize that he said it, such as “Choose a job you love, and you will never work a day in your life.” Confucius also said, “You are what you think.”

In terms of using motivation to achieve life goals, Confucius said, “When it becomes obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.”

Edwin A. Locke

Edwin A Locke was born on May 15, 1938. In the 1960s, he built a goal-setting theory of motivation based on Aristotle’s premise that motivation creates action. Dr. Locke’s philosophy was that setting goals and receiving feedback leads to better performance.

To achieve life goals, a person must first set them. In Dr. Locke’s research, he found that few people bother to set any goals at all. Dr. Locke worked for many years with Dr. Gary Latham to determine the five elements that are needed to achieve life goals, which are:

1. Clarity: Goals need to be clearly understood.
2. Challenge: Goals need to be difficult to achieve.
3. Commitment: There is significant willpower required to work toward a goal.
4. Feedback: Analyze progress and accomplishments to look for ways to improve.
5. Task complexity: Allow plenty of time to achieve complex goals.

Sometimes called the forgotten generation, Generation X is stuck between the Baby Boomers and the Millenials, and they never seem to get the same media attention as the generations on either side of them. Born between 1965 and 1979, Gen X is one of the smallest generations, but it’s created significant cultural influences.

Millennials, in contrast, were born between 1980 and 2000. Although they’re often talked about as if they’re kids, they’re now adults with homes and families, and the oldest part of this generation is well into their 40s. Although these generations share several similarities, they have a lot of differences — check out these five key distinctions.

1. Generation X were latch-key kids.

Generation X was called the latch key generation. Their families were the first to become dual income earners. As a result, they rode their bikes home from school, made their own snacks, and raised themselves for a few hours until their parents got home from work.

By the time most millennials were growing up, this practice had fallen by the wayside — and was even labeled as neglectful in many situations. Millennials grew up with lots of supervision and tons of activities. They were also notorious for winning participation ribbons.

2. Millennials are more tech-savvy.

Millennials are much more tech-savvy than their older counterparts. By the time the oldest millennials were 10, most homes had a computer and video games. This trend has continued into their adulthoods. They often prefer navigating shopping, personal finance, and other essentials through an app, and they use social media at higher rates than Gen X.

Although Gen X didn’t grow up with the same level of technology, they know how to navigate it. They use technology for work and play. They just don’t use it as much as Millennials. They also tend to gravitate toward older media sources such as TV and radio when they’re consuming news and entertainment.

3. Gen X often sees work as just a job.

When asked about work, Gen X often says “it’s just a job.” Millennials, in contrast, tend to want a much deeper connection with their work. They want fulfillment from their careers. They want to feel as if their work matters to their community or to the world.

Despite these basic differences, millennials and Gen X have similar job patterns. While many people think that millennials don’t stay at their jobs as long as older generations, the numbers tell a different story. In 2016, close to two-thirds of millennials had been at their jobs for over a year. Twenty years earlier, Gen Xers had similar retention rates.

4. Millennials are more likely to be college educated. 

Millennials are more likely to be college educated than the Gen X crowd. Approximately, 38% of millennial men and 46% of millennial women had a college degree. In contrast, only about a third of Gen Xers of either gender have a college degree.

5. Their generations were shaped by different social and political events.

These generations are different because they were shaped by different social and political events. The older Gen Xers remember Watergate and the younger ones remember the end of the Cold War. Their generation was also shaped by an increasing divorce rate and moms going to work.

Older millennials experienced 9/11 just as they were becoming adults, and while the younger part of this generation was barely alive when 9/11 happened, they grew up under the shadow of terrorist attacks. Although their parents were also very likely to be divorced, this generation grew up sheltered. Their parents wanted to protect them from the world.

Feel like you have traits of both generations? Well, you may be right. People who were born on the cusp of these generations often feel more tech-savvy than their older Gen X counterparts, but they don’t feel completely akin to the Millennial vibe either. These in-betweeners take on the name Xennnials, and they often bridge the differences between these two generations.

We’re all familiar with the underdog story of David and Goliath. However, David was far from the only dark horse to come from behind…and come out ahead. In fact, military battles around the world throughout history have shown us again and again that there’s no such thing as a shoe-in or “easy” win.

Not convinced? Read on for a round up of five examples of extraordinary military victories despite overwhelming odds against them.

1. The Battle of Carrhae

Marcus Licinius Crassus may have taken down Spartacus, but the uber-rich and widely detested Roman came up short against the Parthians. While the soldiers from northeastern Iran were vastly outnumbered by their opponents, horses were one of the deciding factors in this battle. The Parthians were heavy on cavalry—which was unlike the infantry-dominated battlefields the Romans were accustomed to.

As you’d expect from one of history’s greatest powers, the defeated Romans learned from the loss and adopted many of the Parthians’ tactics as their own.

2. The Battle of Vítkov Hill

This massive battle fought during the Middle Ages saw just 12,000 Hussite peasants take on between 50,000 and 100,000 crusaders recruited by the Holy Roman Empire. Despite being monumentally outnumbered upon entering the city of Prague, Hussite leader John Zizka strategically set up ranks at a vineyard that was naturally defended by a steep cliff on one side. Using tools which included pointed sticks, the Hussite forces pushed more than 300 members of the advancing opposing army over the side and to their deaths, which led to  a chaotic retreat by the crusaders.

3. The Great Siege of Malta

Malta may have been just a tiny island-nation when it came up against the superpower of the time, the Ottoman Empire. However, the combination of strategic leadership by Jean De Valette, unbridled willpower, and lots of cannon-fire helped the 8,500-strong Maltese forces conquer the 45,000-strong Ottoman troops.

“Nothing is so well known as the Siege of Malta,” Voltaire once famously said of the heroic—and unexpected—victory.

4. The Battle of Okehazama

Discussions of Japanese military history usually center around World War II. But military historians point further back to the hereditary leaders known as the Shogunates. During the  Battle of Okehazama, local warlord Oda Nobunaga took on challenger Imagawa Yoshimoto despite being outnumbered 10:1—and won.

So how’d Oda Nobunaga do it? With a combination of sleight of hand and an offensive tact. While the opposing troops were unarmed and celebrating their wins, Oda’s men crept up, flanked, and routed them.

5. The Battle of Jena-Auerstedt

While Napoleon had his work cut out for him with the twin battles of  Jena and Auerstedt, the famed French emperor was known for being anything but under-confident.

Aided by his equally brilliant corps commander, Marshal Louis Nicolas Davout, Napoleon led his outnumbered troops in besting the armies of Prussia and Saxony—all while taking a mere fraction of the casualties suffered by their inferior opponents.

This decisive defeat led to the French Empire’s occupation of the Kingdom of Prussia. Today, the triumph is heralded by many as Napoleon’s most impressive victory.

Study after study has shown that the most emotionally intelligent people tend to be the greatest leaders and are the best at their jobs in general. 

So, what is emotional intelligence? To put it simply, being “master of your emotions” is being able to stand as a great and sturdy oak in the face of constant battering. No matter the extent of the wind, rain, or storms (setbacks, criticisms, or failures), you are able to hold your ground and press on. 

Great leaders are able to do this. It isn’t — as some may think — that these great individuals were “lucky” or fortunate in their upbringing. It isn’t even that they were especially talented (though many were). The true defining factor seems to be that these individuals were particularly emotionally intelligent. They kept their cool even when things went wrong. 

Let’s take a look at five great figures from history who truly mastered their emotions.

1. Julius Caesar 

“Crossing the Rubicon” is a colloquial phrase used today to define an action that one cannot turn back from after it has been completed. The phrase comes from Julius Caesar, a great Roman general who, upon bringing his army across the river Rubicon in Italy and marching them into the City of Rome took an action that was, at that time, against all Roman laws. He later became the de facto first emperor of Rome (or the first Caesar at least).

Roman historians tell us that he was able to take this action with a cool, calm, and reserved presence that denoted his entire duty as general and all of his reign.

2. Napoleon

Napoleon was hugely instrumental in changing the face of France and the entire continent of Europe throughout the 19th century. Europe as it is today is largely the way it is because of Napoleon. 

One of the ways in which he mastered his emotional intelligence was by actually coming back after ultimately losing his campaign and being exiled to the Island of Corsica. Not only was he cool and collected enough to master nearly the entire continent of Europe during his initial campaign, but he was not even put off enough by his exile and was actually able to return to Europe to attempt another turn as a great European leader.

3. George Washington

It was George Washington’s calm and steady resilience against the seemingly never-ending onslaught of the Redcoats during the American Revolutionary War that ultimately helped him persist at Valley Forge and win the war for the colonists. 

In fact, George Washington was so calm and resigned in his abilities that he was prepared to simply move to his country home and resume his agricultural endeavors after the war. That didn’t happen, however, as his troops rallied him to become the first president.

4. Catherine the Great

Catherine the Great was actually a German princess who was married off to a Russian nobleman and ultimately became the Empress of Russia. 

She was steady-headed and even-keeled in the face of even the most frightening political situations. In fact, she had the calm presence of mind to actually usurp her husband’s place as the Emperor of Russia by intervening at exactly the right time when the last monarch perished. She ultimately seized the throne and put her would-be emperor husband in prison.

5. Abraham Lincoln

The 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln was known for his stoic, calm demeanor. As a lawyer, he was highly successful at arguing his side of any case without becoming overly emotional or hysterical. This surely had some hand in helping him win the presidency and, ultimately, the American Civil War.

Are You Master of Your Emotions?

There’s much we can learn from the great leaders of history. Surely, one of the most important is emotional intelligence. 

If you would like to cultivate more emotional intelligence in your own life, consider the following.

In your life, you are actually in control of very little. At any given moment, a long list of terrible things could happen to you, to your home, to your country, and to the people you love. Likewise, even small, annoying things happen to you every day that you don’t control. You drop a glass and break it. You trip and fall. You hit a deer in your car. You notice mold in your bathroom.

But there is one thing that you can control, and this is true across the board — no matter what. You can always control your emotions. You — and only you — control the way you feel, think … and ultimately, act. But before actions and thoughts, you have to control the way you feel. These are your emotions.

Work at becoming emotionally intelligent. Notice when you get riled up. Learn to take cues from yourself, never from others. Ride your difficult emotions like waves and let them settle on their own. Doing these things and mastering your emotions can bring you a vast treasure of success and happiness in life.