Ben Wilson

The chancellorship.

And he held that line for the better part of a decade.

Through electoral defeats, through demoralization of the party, through Hindenburg's repeated refusals, through the November 1932 setback when 2 million voters walked away.

He held the line because he understood something precise and important.

Any position short of the chancellorship was a position where he would bear responsibility for outcomes he couldn't control, where someone else could blame him for failures that weren't his, where he would be a supporting character in someone else's story.

All right.

This is one of those things that seems easy.

It is not easy.

Think about what it actually means in practice to go from a down on his luck artist sleeping in Viennese homeless shelters to being offered the vice chancellorship of Germany, one of the most powerful positions in one of the most powerful countries in the world.

And to say no, to say not good enough, come back with a better offer.

It requires an almost inhuman clarity about what you actually want and an almost inhuman willingness to refuse everything that isn't that.

But that clarity and that willingness was what made the difference between Hitler becoming a forgotten footnote, you know, this rabble rouser who almost got there and becoming Hitler.

Lesson two, the main character theory.

Throughout these years, from the beer hall to the courtroom to the Reichstag, Hitler consistently positioned himself as the protagonist of his own story.

At his trial, when conventional wisdom says go small and apologetic, try and blame other people, try and get out of prison, he did the opposite.

He said, my fault, my responsibility, all eyes on me.

At Landsberg, when he could not control the movement from prison, he withdrew entirely rather than be a figurehead with no real power and someone on the fringes or the outside of power.

In the years of maneuvering from 1930 to 1933, he refused every position where someone else would be writing the outcomes he was associated with.

The practical application is whenever you are considering a new role, a new responsibility, a new position, ask yourself honestly whether you will control the outcomes you'll be held responsible for.

If the answer is no, think very carefully before accepting.