Goggins intimately understands how we hold ourselves back by telling ourselves we are incapable. He grew up in an abusive home where his father beat him up, was bullied at school, stuttered and was, at one stage, obese. The first time he ran, he made it only 400 metres. "I saw myself as the weake...

Nelson Mandela was a visionary leader who believed that forgiveness was more important than revenge. As the first South African president elected in fully democratic elections, he saw his country move past an era of apartheid after serving almost 30 years in prison.

His commit...

Narratives of scientific discovery get polished after the fact.

• Newton was an old man when he told his friend, William Stukeley, that his thinking on the nature of gravity "was occasioned by the fall of an apple, as he sat in contemplative mood." The adage of "the ap...