Ben Wilson

And once he finally decided to act, Hitler did so with ruthlessness.

Such dilatoriness followed by boldness was a feature of Hitler as a party leader, then later as dictator.

So my takeaway from this time period in Hitler's life is build for the future.

The NSDAP in 1928 was a non-factor for most of Germany.

2.6%.

Okay.

It's nothing.

But those years of patient building, party branches, the propaganda techniques, the networks of loyalty, the quasi-governmental structure within the party itself, where people are thinking about how they would govern and being ready to slot in there, that's exactly what they needed when the depression hit and people were desperate and frightened and it was kind of their moment to shine.

There's a version of Adolf Hitler who looks at 2.6% in 1928 and concludes that the project is hopeless and walks away, right?

Like, a lot of people would have made that decision.

Like, I've been working at this for a decade and it's not working.

Time to try something else.

Time to go back to being an artist.

You know, I don't know.

That would have been rational.

But he was playing a longer game.

He knew that a moment would come and he wanted to be ready for it.

And so, you know, I think that's true of technologies and business and politics and everything.

If you're just building for the moment right now,

then you're going to be too late.