The Robin Hallsten Experience

Before launching How to Take Over the World, Ben Wilson struggled with a job that drained him and a question that wouldn’t go away: What does it take to achieve greatness? He nearly failed out of high school, skipped SAT prep to play basketball, and had no grand plan - only a deep desire to stay free, follow his curiosity, and avoid the soul-crushing conformity of traditional paths. In college, he hustled. He double-majored in political science and economics, ran a scrappy but successful campaign for student body VP, and found that success often comes not from being the smartest, but from knocking on more doors, both literally and figuratively. But after several years across consulting and marketing roles, that spark faded. He was relying on stimulants to focus, sleeping pills to recover, and still couldn’t shake the feeling that he was drifting further from a life that mattered. Then, one morning in 2018, while reading a biography of Napoleon and listening to a podcast, he felt a visceral, painful energy - w