In 1938, Adolf Hitler got permission to annex  portions of Czechoslovakia along the country’s borders from Neville Chamberlain in what would later be known as the Munich Agreement. History would later know this as a huge mistake on Chamberline’s behalf as he fueled the monster that caused the Holocaust and World War II.

How did Hitler get Chamberlin to sign this agreement? Simple. Chamberlain was an avid smoker, the type of guy that goes through a pack of cigarettes on a slow day. Hitler on the other hand detested smoking and knew about Chamberlain’s habit. Hitler exploited this weakness by setting their negotiation over the Czechoslovakia area in an old palace that forbade smoking in Munich. To put it as elegantly as they did in the hit TV series Mad Men “after an hour and a half of not smoking, Neville Chamberlain would have given Hitler his mother as a dance partner.”

Chamberlains weakness caused him to make a terrible mistake that definitely fueled one of history’s most horrid monsters. Chamberlain let his smoking habit cause him to go down in history as a fool. It ruined any dream he had of being remembered as a good leader.

Everyone has their own bad habit. Some people are lazy, some procrastinate, some fear failure. We all have our own fatal flaw that could be used against us and stop us from accomplishing our dreams. Don’t let it stop you.

It’s important to identify what these bad habits  are so we could prevent them from hindering our success. Find a way around it or if you can’t than kill the habit now before it’s too late. Don’t let something stupid stand in the way of greatness!