How to Become Great?

Why Great Men are responsible for 99% of history

May 10, 2026

When studying history, we always come across leaders who led the masses. Napoleon leading the Napoleonic Wars, Caesar leading the Civil War, and Alexander the Great conquering the whole known worlds.

All of these men are considered great.

But what sets them apart, and how can we too become like them? Today, we will discuss just that...

Who do we consider Great?

When discussing great men, I always wonder what makes all of them so unique. And the answer is not as easy as it might seem.

An amateur historian will look at Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon and think that greatness comes from the land one conquers. The more territory a certain king or commander has conquered, the greater he is. But that is misleading and ignores the full picture.

How about Skanderbeg, who defended Christian Albania from the Ottoman onslaught? He didn’t conquer vast territories, but he is considered great. Or Arthur Wellesley, the 1st Duke of Wellington. He never conquered anything. Yet he is regarded as one of the greatest men and military commanders from the Napoleonic period. Only equal to Napoleon himself.

And let’s not forget philosophers like Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Diogenes, or Seneca. All of them never participated in wars, yet they are still regarded as great men from history. Shakespeare is great, though he was a writer.

Well, you get my point. It is not conquered land that makes a man great, not a military career or how much one kills. But completely different reasons.

Different types of Greatness

Thomas Carlyle, a Scottish historian and essayist is the original founder of “Great Men” theory. He stated that there are 6 fields Great men emerge in:

Divinities (Odin)
Prophets (Mohamed)
Poets (Shakespeare)
Priests (Martin Luther)
Men of letters (Jean-Jacques Rousseau)
Kings (Napoleon)

Some of them serve a spiritual and moral purpose, and others are of different important classes in society. Each of these fields takes a part in shaping humanity and has its own great men or women to push those areas forward.

This means different fields have their own heroes and extraordinary figures that revolutionize specific columns of humanity. There are great men who take the role of prophets, poet, priest, philosopher, or ruler. Each of these breeds heroes for their own times and circumstances.

That means greatness is not only described by territories one conquers, but also by contributions to writing, philosophy, arts, or the religious fields.

But if greatness appears in so many forms, how do these individuals all become great? That’s where we go next...

What makes a man Great?

As I studied many great men, I found that they have a few abilities that set them apart from others:

They go against nature
Stand against all odds
Are masters in their respective fields

All great men are natural leaders. They go against the masses. They are the ones that set a new course for 99% of remaining humans. Napoleon started a war on a scale unseen in Europe. Caesar ignored the Senate and ruler of all Rome. Shakespeare’s plays changed the development of literature and theater. Luther stood up against corruption in the church. All start something new that challenges the passivity.

Great men had all odds stacked against them. Luther brought upon himself the entire wrath of the Catholic Church. Alexander went against the largest empire in history that had subjugated Greeks many times before. Napoleon fought against all of Europe. But they didn’t give up. They thrived. And their struggles made them immortals.

Of course, you can’t lead a movement if you lack any great skill. Seneca, Aristotle, and Rousseau were exceptional philosophers. They read and experienced a lot that let them look at the world with fresh perspective. Shakespeare… Well, Shakespeare. When you talk about greatest writers he first comes to mind. Michelangelo and Da Vinci were literally masters of all fields.

And our generals... Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, all of them exceptional commanders that revolutionized warfare and had natural talent for it. They read a lot, learned from the past, and became great.

These three traits combined make every man great. They are universal amongst all fields.

How can you imitate their success?

The best way to become Great is to start reading about Great men of history.

Biographies are your cheat code to greatness. Identify your role models and learn everything about them. How they became the best, what challenges they faced, what strategies they used. Adapt their teachings and virtues. But avoid their mistakes or atrocities. Because only like that can we become great. By improving on what others did before us.

Great men are not an academic invention. And they are not meant to be overlooked. They were the main drivers of history since the dawn of humankind. And we have this amazing opportunity to study them and write our own pages of history.

So, will you read about them? Or become a footnote in history?

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