The cool thing about history is hindsight. We know the ending of the story. When we examine the life journey of a person in history who accomplished great things, we can look at their childhood and influences, education, training, decisions they made along the way - you get the idea.

Life and business coaches always tell us not to take "no" for an answer, and it fascinates me to look at when people in history took this advice - in many cases, despite enormous obstacles.

Judith Sargent Murray

Judith Sargent Murray, for example, born in 1751 in Gloucester, Massachusetts,did not hear "no" when she pursued a process of self-education as a young girl when most girls received no education at all. She joined her family in not taking "no" from the established church when they chose to pursue their own religion, Universalism, and were publicly denounced and expelled from the church.

She ignored "no" when she published her magazine essays on women's rights and female education at a time when women could not speak in public except through their writing. She claimed a "new era in female history" and full equality for women,making her the first American to do so - again, in public, not in private letters. Despite an eventual "no" from her magazine publisher,she self-published a book of even more essays (The Gleaner),wrote two plays, and encouraged the next generation of American writers to walk through the doors she had opened. She helped found a female academy and influenced dozens of young people, one of whom became a leading abolitionist in Boston. Did she help others to ignore "no?"Probably. And her voice is being un-silenced today with the discovery of her letters.

Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley, whose birth date we don't even know but it's ca. 1753, faced the ultimate "no" to her humanity when she was kidnapped from Africa and sold as a slave to the Wheatley family of Boston to be a lady's maid.Her first push back against "no" was to survive the horrific passage across the Atlantic Ocean. Her second dismissal of "no" was to reveal her intelligence, and to say "yes" to the schooling she was offered. She wrote a book of poems that is the beginning of African American literature in the United States called Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, displaying her deep knowledge of history and the scriptures. "Important men" of Boston had to testify that she had, in fact, written the work.

In the newspapers, she challenged the morality of the "good Christian ministers" who defended slavery. She wrote a poem and sent it to George Washington, not presuming that she shouldn't. Time and again, she refused to hear "no" and claimed her power under very dark circumstances. Sadly, after she was "freed," married, and had children,she died in obscurity and poverty. No one knows where she is buried.Does her demise make her extraordinary moments of courage all the more poignant? I think so.

Margaret Fuller

Margaret Fuller, another Massachusetts woman, born in 1810 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, had the temerity to believe that the ideals of liberty and justice put forth in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S.Constitution applied to everyone. Under the watchful eye of a father who insisted she have a rigorously challenging education, her first refusal to hear "no" was by not hiding the fact that she was smart. Rather than follow tradition and marry young, she taught school to earn money,wrote, and published.

She examined the condition of women in society at the time, and published her dismaying findings in a groundbreaking book called Woman in the Nineteenth Century calling for full suffrage, legal, and social equality immediately. She refused America's "no" to end slavery, the policy of "Indian removal," poverty,and the horrific conditions of public institutions. She said "yes" to becoming the first woman to head the literary department of the major newspaper (New-York Tribune) and to becoming the first woman foreign correspondent, also for the Tribune.She was struck down at age 40 in a shipwreck, but her work inspired the reformers who carried her work forward. During the 12 hours it took the ship to sink, I hope she knew what she had achieved and that her work would continue.

Three astonishing women, three remarkable life stories. Common threads?

• An innate sense of their self-worth despite all kinds of messages to the contrary

• The ability to know when to ask for or accept help

• The instinct to know when to act

• The intelligence to find another way when presented with obstacles

Surely, there are lessons to be learned here -- words and acts of wisdom passed down to us through the ages.

Meanwhile,I express gratitude from our time back to Judith Sargent Murray,Phillis Wheatley, and Margaret Fuller for what they endured and achieved.

Can they hear? I hope so.