Best Sellers In History Series 5 - "Mahatma Gandhi" Depending on who you ask, hearing the name Mahatma Gandhi may bring up the titles of leader, spiritual guide, person of nonviolence, The Father of India, and many more. You may think about the man who defied the British Empire. How did one man make it possible? How was he able to get millions of people to follow his ideals and eventually shape the rest of Western culture? For this episode, we will look at Mahatma Gandhi and explore the traits that made him an influential person. Sales Spotlight - Mahatma Gandhi Mahatma Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, in Pordabander, India. He studied law in London but moved to South Africa in 1893 where he spent 20 years opposing discriminatory legislation against Indians. Gandhi was from a successful family, his father a successful merchant. Gandhi’s experience in working for a law firm in South Africa led him to focus his efforts on helping those who are disenfranchised by society. One particular day, Gandhi was riding on a train in first-class. Being a man of means, he’d the money to pay for the ticket. However, another passenger in first-class didn’t like that an Indian was riding there as well. The conductor tried to encourage Gandhi to move to the lower class but he had paid for the ticket and had broken no laws. He defended himself and was thrown off the train. Gandhi went back to India and supported the home rule movement, where Indians could rule themselves, independent from the British Empire. The British had come into India and raked the country’s resources for 200 years. The British originally talked about how they were going to help the people and the economy, and would create jobs, but it didn’t happen in India’s favor. Most of the money went back to England and English people started to look down on the poorer Indian people. The English people were able to take the whole of India because India wasn’t united. Indian Revolution against Britain The largest rebellion against the British took place in 1857 and it lasted for 18 months. The British called it the Indian Mutiny and it started to spread even though the British downplayed the rebellion and by calling it a mutiny. Both sides had a difficult time but the British eventually won. Many of the Indians were conditioned to think they couldn’t fight against the British despite their huge number. Instead of fighting for their own battle, the Indian army became the backbone of the British empire. The British Viceroy, Lord Curzon said that as long as they ruled India, they would be the greatest power in the world. The Indians, however, wanted their freedom and their own democracy. The lack of unity Imagine the same situation in the B2B world. Suppose a new client has a huge problem? They have tried to fix it in the past but they weren’t able to win against it. As a result, they started to just live with the problem. Within the company there could be groups of people who have great ideas on how to solve the problem but there’s nobody who is unifying them. Every department keeps doing the best they can and everyone just lives with the pain. They need a powerful leader who can recognize there’s a problem, bring all the groups together, and create a solution as a team. Mahatma Gandhi showed that kind of leadership. Going to the masses Unlike other politicians and wealthy people, Mahatma Gandhi spent time with the masses. This was very similar to what Jesus Christ, Mother Teresa, Abraham Lincoln, and the other personalities in this history series did. They wanted to make a lasting impression so they spent most of their time with the masses. If you want to make a massive impact, you need to go to the people. The same is true for Mahatma Gandhi. He went among the people and built...

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