Yuan Shikai, the Loser with a capital L.

If you had the power and the choice to change the lives of over 800 million people for the better or the worst, what would you do?

Hopefully you would do try to make the best choice to improve the lives of the 800 million people.

But what did this loser, Yuan Shikai do? He failed to see the opportunity of becoming that great man that billion of Chinese for generations would admire and praise. He selfishly chose to become the emperor of China.

He could have become a hero for billion of Chinese by uniting China with Sun Yatsen and his supporters. With his military and political powers and influence, he had the right stuff to build a Chinese republic. He was the only one who could bring stability to China in a time of chaos. But he failed to see the greater picture, the greater good, the manifest that could happen. He only saw himself in golden robe as an emperor in a world that no longer believed in absolute monarchy. He could have become the George Washington of China, but instead, he died a broken man who spent his whole life living a nightmare to become an emperor of a distant China that grew passed him.