Washington D.C., June 1947. Europe is starving. Secretary Marshall has a $16 billion plan. Congress is isolationist and half the committee thinks Europe had its chance. You are the State Department briefer. You have forty-five minutes with the senator who controls the vote.
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Decisions That Shaped the World →
Five moments that changed history. The Cuban Missile Crisis, Gandhi's Salt March, the Berlin Airlift, Mandela's negotiation table, the Marshall Plan pitch. Each one was a decision made by a person under pressure. Practice the skills those decisions required.
Skills you'll build
What happens in this story4 scenarios
Washington, 1947. Europe is starving, Marshall has a plan, and the senator who controls the vote thinks it's not America's problem. You have forty-five minutes to reframe foreign aid from charity into survival — theirs and ours.
What started with the argument just got more complicated. Now you need to apply lessons from historical leadership to your own decision-making — and the situation is shifting faster than your first approach can handle.
This is the moment you've been building toward. Learning from history's biggest mistakes before you repeat them in your own life — except now the stakes are real and there's no rehearsal. What you do next matters.
You've faced the hardest part. Now turn what you've learned into something sustainable — a way to apply lessons from historical leadership to your own decision-making not just today, but every time this situation returns.
More stories in this course
View all →Thirteen Days
October 1962. Soviet missiles in Cuba. The world is thirteen days from nuclear war. Inside the ExComm crisis room, you must read the room before the room reads you — and find the decision that holds the line without crossing it.
4 scenarios →The Salt March
India, 1930. Gandhi has announced a 241-mile march to the sea to make salt illegally and break British law. You are part of the inner circle. The British administration is watching. The question is not whether to march — it is how to make the march impossible to ignore.
4 scenarios →The Corridor
Berlin, June 1948. The Soviets have closed all ground routes to the Western sectors. Two million civilians need food, fuel, and medicine. You are the Allied liaison officer. The decision between negotiation, escalation, and the impossible logistics of an airlift runs through you.
4 scenarios →The Argument
Washington D.C., June 1947. Europe is starving. Secretary Marshall has a $16 billion plan. Congress is isolationist and half the committee thinks Europe had its chance. You are the State Department briefer. You have forty-five minutes with the senator who controls the vote.
Start free →4 scenarios · 25 min · No account required to try