We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Daniele Bolelli a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Daniele, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.
I’d love to claim to have being born from a rock and forged my own self because it sounds cool and manly. But the reality is that I had a huge advantage from the get-go, since I had parents who showered me in love and attention every day of my life. They didn’t have money. I wasn’t privileged in that sense, but I was in terms of being raised in a highly emotionally nurturing environment. Of course, this doesn’t guarantee that a person will develop self-esteem. Many things can go wrong along the way. Yet, what I received from my parents made the task of developing confidence infinitely easier.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I never had a single career. I always two or three running together at the same time. I went to graduate school in order to be able to teach history in college because a. I enjoy it, and b. I figured it’d be a non soul-killing way to pay the bills.
I’ve always loved to write, but I didn’t want to have to rely on that to make a living, since it’d put a monstrous amount of pressure and possibly spoil something I am passionate about. And yet, I was able to publish four books so far and have a great time with them. Over time, I also combined my skills in storytelling and history by crafting a history podcast called History on Fire, which became one of the most popular history podcasts in the world.
I love epic stories, and it seems like people respond to the way I tell them. So, in an ideal world I’d love to not only continue doing what I’m doing with podcasts and books, but bring some of this to TV, cinema, graphic novels, etc.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Communication is # 1. Knowing how to interact with human beings and create pleasant relationships makes everything easier. Almost every opportunity I’ve ever had has come from good relationships with people.
My approach to discipline and hard work is mildly insane. Being driven is one thing, but I think I may take it too far. Then again, it helps making things happen.
The fact that I don’t specialize in a single field, but instead I have a fairly high level of knowledge in several different fields has helped me tremendously in my journey.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
The first time I read the Tao Te Ching, it made no sense to me. It was a particularly bad translation and I probably read it at the wrong time in my life. Eventually, I’ve read it in about a dozen different translations and found plenty of ideas that shape my way of looking at the world. It’d be hard to summarize the key points, since they are at the roots of my way of life, but if I have to pick one key aspect is how the Tao Te Ching instilled an appreciation for paradox in me, a taste for nuance, and an understanding that any great solution to a problem comes from understanding the context.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://historyonfirepodcast.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/historyonfire/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/daniele.bolelli.3/
- Twitter: https://x.com/DBolelli
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@historyonfireofficial
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