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Napoleon Bonaparte

lines on the record: 36
first: 2023-05-08
most recent: 2023-05-08
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“Then it goes back to this idea that he sacrificed everything, his comfort, everything in life to fulfill what he thought was his destiny. Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me, and it goes back to this idea that ambition is all consuming, right? It only ceases as a fire that burns and it only is extinguished until that life is extinguished. Talking about himself, I know what this has cost me, the sufferings, the sleepless nights, the scheming. Remember, the God of war and the God of success are marching alongside me. My soul is made of marble. Lightning has found no grip on it and has had to slide off. As far as my detractors I have no fear of becoming their victim, they will be biting into granite. I wanted to rule the world, and in order to do this I needed unlimited power. I wanted to rule the world. Who wouldn't have in my place?”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He goes back to this idea that winning solves everything. Winning is the main thing and that you need to keep the main thing, the main thing. My power is dependent on my glory and my glory on my victories. My power would fail. My power would fall if I did not base it on still more glory and still more victories. Conquest has made me what I am, and conquest alone can keep me there.”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Of my highlights, and I'm almost at the end of the book. And I realized I was like, okay, this is my main takeaway from spending time with Napoleon, right? Because it's like to hold this book in your hand is to literally go into his mind and live there for, you know, it took me eight days to really absorb this book. And it's not that long. It's just really trying to think about what the hell he's trying to convey to us. And so my main takeaway from spending all this time with Antonio is like, whatever you do, do it constantly and massively increase. This is a note to myself. Whatever you do, do it constantly and massively increase the scope of your ambition. As I was reading this book, I was constantly thinking I'm not doing enough.”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And then towards the end of his life, he's going back and trying to figure out he surveys his career, and he's talking about how he's going to be remembered in history. I'm going to read you the paragraph and I'm going to, one of my main takeaways from the book or reoccurring thought that I had when I was going to the book, it will be argued at length whether my absolute authority and my arbitrary actions were the effect of my character or of my calculations, whether they were caused by my inclination or by force of circumstance, whether I waged constant warfare that's one way to put it, waged constant warfare. We just said that other books said he did more battles than what Caesar, Hannibal, and Alexander combined, whether I waged constant warfare to indulge my personal taste or whether I was pushed into it against my will, whether my immense ambition was spurred by lust for power or thirst for glory or for the necessity of establishing order or my love of general warfare. And it's when I get to this page and I had reread.”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What is the opposite of boldness that would probably be timidity, right? And yet he's saying right here, then when it comes to planning, he is timid. What does that mean? So he uses this word. It's called pusilanimous, which is showing a lack of courage or determination and timid. Timid. There is no man more pusilaminous than I. When I am planning a campaign, I purposely exaggerate all the dangers and all the calamities that the circumstances make possible. I am in a thoroughly painful state of agitation during planning. Once I've made up my mind, everything is forgotten except what leads to success, so timid and careful when planning, yet bold and relentless when acting. An odd thing popped my mind when he was when I got to the section because he's like, you know, I'm essentially planning for every worst case possible, the worst case possible, making sure I have all these contingencies. One of my favorite things that Paul Graham”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Admire and value. He's running through all these anecdotes on all these historical people. This is in the art of war section of the book of what he learned from studying them. Again, he's watching GameTape, right? And he's just going to repeat this. This goes on for multiple pages. And really what I wrote down is Napoleon admires boldness. Napoleon wants you to be bold. The boldness and length of these marches astonished France. And until they were justified by success, they were the target of and criticism of mediocre men. So he's talking about people that came before him. What distinguished Frederick the Great most is not the cleverness of his moves, but his boldness. He's using the word bold again. And then the editor does a fantastic job of tying all this together for us. Boldness is the common quality signaled out by Napoleon in the seven great generals whom he cites as examples.”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Would flow from it as from a common source. And so then he talks about not only he learning from these people, but they learn from each other. Caesar's principles were the same as Alexander's and Hannibal's. To keep his forces united, to be vulnerable at no point, to strike speedily at critical points, to make use of every possible opportunity of increasing his chances of victory on the battlefield. Think about it. Let me pause right there. To make use of every possible opportunity of increasing his chances of victory on the battlefield, do everything and you will win that maximum pops up over and over again in the book. That's another way of him saying the same thing, to make use of every possible opportunity, of increasing your chances for victory. Caesar took great risks in the adventures into which he was pushed by his boldness, his genius got him out of his difficulties. He was a man whose genius and boldness were equally great, so that's another example of this idea of squareness, this equilibrium of two valuable traits that Napoleon seemed to.”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Death is nothing but to live defeated and without glory is to die every day. And then he goes back to this idea, this LBJ Lyndon Johnson idea. If you do everything, you will win. Napoleon prepared to such an extraordinary degree, and this is part of the reason why war consists of nothing but accidents and that a commander should never overlook anything that might enable him to exploit these accidents. The vulgar call this luck, but in fact is a characteristic of genius. Back to this idea of paying attention to the tiniest details. Sometimes a single battle decides everything, and sometimes too, the slightest circumstance decides the battle. Little things are big things, is how I would summarize what he's saying there. This he's talking about how do you learn how to be a great general, really what he's saying here. I wrote same with entrepreneurship. Knowledge of the grand principles of warfare can be acquired only through the study of military history and of battles of the great”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so this is about Napoleon's notion of this ideal he called squareness. So squareness is actually an equilibrium of intellect and character. His definition of character would be physical courage as well as perseverance and daring. So he wants you to be courageous, not quitting, and a little bit of daring and bold, right? And so you want to have equal distributions of character and intelligence and individuals that had an equilibrium of those two characteristics were described as squareness, which is a high complement from Napoleon. This is another idea that Napoleon goes into what your greatest fear in life should be, and that's actually not death, but a wasted life. These three things you must always keep in mind, concentration of strength, activity, and a firm resolve to perish gloriously. These are the three principles of the military art which have disposed luck in my favor and all my operations.”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In knowing the mentality of his soldiers and in winning their confidence. A leader's principal talent consists in knowing the mentality of your team and winning their confidence. So then we get into some of Napoleon's maxims for this is the art of war. At the beginning of a campaign, much thought should be given to whether a strategy is to be adopted. However, once the offensive has started, it must be sustained to the last extremity. So that's another example of this idea for him thoughts are only valuable to the degree that they lead to actions. This is going to remind me of Steve Jobs. This is something that Napoleon repeated. The ancients had a great advantage over us in that their armies were not trailed by a second army of pen pushers.”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And this guy had an unbelievable way with words. And this is what he says you know what words can do to soldiers. So then he gives his speech in 1786 to his soldiers. Soldiers, you are ill-fed and almost naked. The government owes you a great deal, but it can do nothing for you. Your patience and courage do you honor, but give you neither worldly goods nor glory. I shall lead you. I shall lead you into the most fertile plains on earth. So you're saying, the government owes you a bunch. They've done nothing. I will. Your patience and courage do you honor, but give you neither worldly goods nor glory. I shall lead you into the most fertile plains on earth. There, you shall find great cities and rich provinces. There, you shall find honor, glory, and riches. And why is he doing this? Because he's saying a general. So you and I are going to change that word, a leader, right? A general, a leader's principal talent consistent.”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And then Napoleon goes into building the importance of building his army's morale. Again, he's building an army. You and I are building teams, right? This idea that you have to influence the way people, their perception of the events that are taking place inside of your company, inside of your team, he's doing the exact same thing, but he's doing this in 1796. When I arrived, the Army's morale was being undermined by all the malcontents. I took strong measures and I used every means to reorganize the supplies. And then victory has done the rest. Momentum solves everything. Winning solves everything. In the introduction, he talks about it's super important to be successful in your endeavors. Be successful. I judge men only by the results of their actions is what he does.”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Agreed upon. You're just violating their neutrality. We refuse to do that, right? And so in other words, saying you're not fighting fair, which this guy had a really poor understanding of human nature and the psychology of humans. Napoleon responds, I have not recognized this neutrality. Consequently, I have a right to enter its territory. Again, other rules don't apply. Their rules are for other people. They are not for Napoleon. Mac, ah, we were always the dupes of our good faith. And then he continues that Napoleon not only violated the neutrality of Switzerland, he also did it for Prussia, which gave him an advantage in this battle against Mac. He says, Your Majesty had also violated the neutrality of Prussia, thus gaining eight days in effecting the junction of your forces. This premature junction gave you the opportunity to crush us, and yet, if I had wished to violate Prussian territory, I could have easily cut off your retreat. Napoleon responds,”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“City burn says it's like Vesuvius erupting, don't you think this is a beautiful sight? And the person standing next to him says, This is horrible, sire. And this is Napoleon's response. But remember, gentlemen, the corpse of an enemy always smells sweet. There's this one story he's telling us walking past thousands of dead corpses. And yet there's an injured dog. And he's like, what is wrong with me? Like, I'm brought to tears and agony over this injured dog. And I didn't even weep or think twice about passing all these dead humans. And I bring that up and I want to repeat that because I think it's really important to understand like you and I are right now we're setting one of the most extreme people that have ever lived and he was extreme in mindset and action. In fact, in addition to reading this book, I read another book on Napoleon. I may turn it into like a bonus episode or something. It's called The Roots of Strategy, the five greatest military classics of all time complete in one volume. And it's all these military generals throughout history. I think the book is very, very old.”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Dictate her itinerary and outline her conduct. And so he's calling this guy, he's like, okay, I'm going to dictate you what we need to do, write everything down that I'm about to say. And this is a crazy thing. And then he dictated 21 large sheets of paper. So this guy's the emperor of France when he's doing this. And it's like, he's got a million things to worry about. And again, I think the editor nailed it here. Napoleon's inability to leave even the most trivial detail to others. And so when you study Napoleon, something that pops up a lot is he just spends so much time communicating with his troops. And I think one of the reasons is because he really does believe how powerful the mind is. The morale of your troops who are either strong and victorious are weak and beaten depending on which they think they will be. So he spends an unbelievable amount of time sharing information with them and really guiding what they think. And it is in the war section that we get just how extreme, I don't know if he's psychopath or what you want to call it, but this is an example of that. Napoleon, while watching”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Purpose was multiple to inform the public, to counter ruin, to mislead the enemy and to stir up enthusiasm. He served as his own minister of propaganda, the difference being once you go down that path and you're the sovereign of a nation, he's going to have complete control. This is just something that reappears over in human nature. It's never going to stop. If you give somebody unlimited power, they're going to want to control the information flow. And we see this in the early 1800s when Napoleon was being shaved. I used to read the newspapers, Tim. I would always begin with the French paper. Skip it, skip it. He used to say when I read the French papers. I know what's in them. They only say what I tell them to. And so this idea that Napoleon was a micromanager reappears in multiplicators, he's talking about the propaganda aspect he micromanaged. But he also micromanaged things that he probably shouldn't have micromanaged, but that's a part of his personality. And he says something that actually contradicts with his actions. And he's talking about managing. It's under the section in the book called The Art of Rule.”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He believed that you needed to control your own message, that you could shape public opinion. And so Napoleon was definitely a master of propaganda. He believed and he explicitly stated that you need to guide public opinion and that you do that through the media and through information. Again, for our purposes, we're not trying to overthrow countries, hopefully. We're just trying to build great products and then make people aware of their existence. And so I think it's very valuable to study some of the best companies and individuals they were able to get their message out there. This is a Napoleon's version. And he says the masses must be guided without their noticing it. It is necessary to enlighten public opinion. With ink and paper, you can draw any picture you like, only by telling the facts simply and with details can we convince them. And he thought this was so important that he did it himself that Noylef myself here is do it yourself, act as your own minister of propaganda for your company. The best example of this is when Steve Jobs came back to Apple every Wednesday they'd have like a long three-hour meeting”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And then we see another example of a thought, an idea leading to action, this thought that, hey, most of what human behavior is, it's just traditions, that if you actually stop and ask, like, why are things like this, you realize a lot of the limits that you have are illusions? And he thinks on an unbelievably grand scale, you really just makes you think bigger, that you just realize that you don't have any limits and that life can be built to your specifications. And to Napoleon, it didn't matter if you were the leader of a country, the leader of a religion. If you got in his way, he was going to do something about it. Here's an example. I am informing the Pope of my plans in a few words. If he does not acquiesce, I shall reduce him to the same status that he held before Charlemagne, since nothing induces the Pope to behave reasonably, he will see that I am powerful enough to do what my predecessors have done, to depose a pope.”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Like the birth of industries. And so when I read Napoleon Say This, a revolution could be neither made nor stopped. A revolution could be neither made nor stopped. The only thing that can be done is for one or several of its children to give it a direction. I think of commercial revolutions, things that you and I have studied, like the birth of the internet, the birth of human-powered flight, the birth of mass-produced automobiles with internal combustion engines. These were revolutions that could be neither made nor stopped and the only thing to be done is for one or several of its founders to give it a direction. And later in the book, he revisits that idea. It may be possible to arrest the surge of progress or to throttle it, but not to destroy it, a revolution can neither be made nor stop. It may be possible to arrest a surge of progress or to throttle it, but not to destroy it. Another benefit of reading this book is that you see that Napoleon, you know, for”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Was his approach? Everything he did was calculated, deeply, carried out audaciously and managed wisely. And then he goes right into analyzing St. Louis and he's like, oh, I don't want to do what this guy remember in the introduction says that to Napoleon's mind, inaction was unbearable. And so he says, Saint Louis spent eight months praying when he should have spent them marching, fighting, and consolidating his hold over his country. In other words, he wasn't using his thinking as a step to action, goes into Frederick the Great, mentions him a couple times again, more Napoleon learning from history on Frederick the Great. I think that he is one of those who knew their business best in all respects. Frederick was great above all at moments of great crises. This is the highest praise that can be given. And then he has a great line where he speaks about the French Revolution, but I think this applies for what our purposes, right? Studying history's greatest founders is in many cases stone.”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Saying, hey, on average, humans don't learn from history. And then he goes right into Napoleon trying to learn from history. And there's all these great men of history that he constantly brings up, Alexander the Great is one of them. Alexander had barely outgrown his boyhood when with a handful of men he conquered a portion of the globe. And so I'm going to pause before I finish that part. What's playing out over the next few pages, I realized, is like, oh, to me, reading these biographies, like watching, it's like what an athlete does where he watches a game tape, right? And he's like, okay, I want to emulate these traits that this person has in their game. And oh, nope, I want to avoid these other mistakes. Or maybe there's an advantage I can pick up here by the experience that this person had. And so in Alexander, when he goes describing what Alexander is doing to me, he's like, oh, this is very much what Napoleon did. So he's like, I'll grab these traits from Alexander and I'll use them in my life. And he's talking about like how the hell did Alexander do this when he was just barely a boy and he did all this?”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Into his Napoleon's definition of ambition. And really, after I finished reading the entire book, I went back. I always go through my highlights and read them multiple times, and then I start updating notes with the context of everything that's going to come in the future from the book. And I was like, oh, he's describing himself here. He could never quit. Ambition, which overthrows governments and private fortunes, which feeds on blood and crimes. Ambition is a violent and unthinking fever that ceases only when life ceases. That is Napoleon's description of Napoleon. There is only one thing to do in this world, and that is to keep acquiring more and more money and power. And Napoleon spends a lot of time talking about history, essentially what he's telling us is that humans don't learn from history. It's the rare few that actually can change their behavior. Because again, learning is not just memorizing information. Learning's changing behavior. And so Napoleon says nation and individuals alike learn only from their own experience. And most of the time from misfortunes.”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Everything. Warren Buffett has a line that I found in this book called All I Want to Know Is Where I'm going to Die So I'll Never Go There Buffet and Munger studying Simplicity and Uncommon Common Sense. That was episode 286. He says that we are individual opportunity driven. We see Napoleon echoing that same sentiment here. I had very few definitive ideas. And the reason for this was that instead of seeking to control circumstances, I obeyed them. And they forced me to change my mind all the time. Most of the time I had no definitive plans, but only projects. This is one of my favorite lines in the entire book. This line is actually related to the next line where he's describing Alexander. The first line is imagination rules the world. Like a paragraph later, he's describing Alexander. He says Alexander believes himself a god and he wants to make others believe it. And that notion came from Alexander's imagination. Imagination rules the world.”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“British pretensions of superiority, and we will win control over half a continent. And what does Napoleon say? It is success which makes the great man. And then he tells us one characteristic that great effect of men have. And again, you can make the argument that some of these people are effective and maybe the results of what they actually focus on wasn't good for humanity. I complete in many cases I would agree with that. But there is fascinating parallel here. I'm on the second book of this four-part biography that Robert Caro is writing on LBJ. In the first LBJ biography, LBJ has this line. Lyndon Johnson has this line that if you do everything, you will win. I think Napoleon agrees with that statement. All great events hang by a single thread. The clever man takes advantage of everything, neglects nothing that may give him some added opportunity. The less clever man, by neglecting one thing, sometimes misses everything. That is such a good line. The less clever man, by neglecting one thing, sometimes misses.”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Are the independence of his country, but his success obliged them to change their minds and acknowledge both, listen to his punchline, what he's telling us. It is success which makes the great man think about that. He failed to acknowledge him or the independence of his country, but his success obliged them to change their minds and acknowledge both. It is success which makes the great man. One of my favorite lines ever in any book that I've ever read for the podcast came back on episode, I think it's 251. It's this biography, this dual biography of Ben Franklin and George Washington. If you haven't bought the book, I think it's like 250 pages, 300 pages.”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Monotony one day resembling the next, when he asked himself why do I exist? Then, in my opinion, he is the most wretched of all. And then he goes back to some of his favorite themes on immortality, on life, destiny, will, greatness. This is a repeated saying, what is a great reputation, a big noise. The more noise you make, the farther it will go. Laws, institutions, monuments, nations, all of this passes. But the noise it makes continues to vibrate through generations. And then he's writing a letter to other people giving the advice that he gives himself to other people, die young, and I still accept your death, but not if you have lived without glory, without being useful to your country, without leaving a trace of your existence, for that is to have not lived at all so that we've already heard him repeat that multiple times. When I got to this section, it made me think of one of my favorite quotes from Charlie Munger. He says, don't be too timid. Go at life with a little courage. And then he's writing a letter to one of them.”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He talks about this is actually interesting because I'm reading another biography of Anthony Bourdain, who obviously committed suicide. And this is something that Napoleon mentions a bunch, that it's a mistake, no matter what. Essentially, the mistake of suicide. And we go back to the way he has with words. The man who kills himself on Monday night might wish to live on Saturday. And yet one kills oneself only once. The man who, breaking down under the weight of present evils, ends his life, commits a grave injustice towards himself and yields to despair and weakness, to a momentary mood at the expense of his entire future existence. This is the worst way to live. When on rising from sleep, a man does not know what to do with himself and drags his tedious existence from place to place, when, scanning his future, he sees nothing but dreadful”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Plans. And then later on, we see another example of this underlying philosophical view of deep and realistic cynicism about humans and life in general. And funny, this is actually in a section called Life, Destiny, and Greatness. Your nephew Elliot has been killed on the battlefield. That young man had acquired valuable military experience. Someday, he would have been a most valuable officer. He died gloriously and facing the enemy. He did not suffer for an instant. What reasonable man would not have chosen such a death? What man is there who, in the vicitudes of life would not have put down his money to buy such a way out of an often contemptible world? And then we go back to that reoccurring theme when Napoleon, the fact that you go after life with maximum energy and drive and passion, you actually impose your will on the world. He says, one must have the will to live and be willing to die.”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For them. Humans are guided by nothing else than self interest. And then Napoleon shows us his view on human nature. There's a line. I actually went back through my notes in Reed-Wise. Because it's like, I've heard, the way Napoleon thinks, I would say it's very similar to this line about Charlie Munger and Cicero and poor Charlie's almanac, where he says his underlying philosophical view was one of deep and realistic cynicism about human nature. I think he believed that about other humans and himself. He says, I start out by believing the worst. I defy anyone to trick me. Men would have to be exceptional rascals to be as bad as I assume them to be. And then he immediately demonstrates that this applies to himself as well. This is the thing about Napoleon. He is unapologetically extreme, maybe more than any other person I've ever read about. He says, my wife could have died and it would have not interfered for a quarter of an hour with the execution of my...”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And one thing that he criticizes he would analyze other previous generals and their battle plans. And one thing he realizes some people were just sitting around thinking too much and not acting. And he says, the great majority of men attend to what is necessary only when they feel in need for it. The precise time when it is too late. Another strength of Napoleon is he had an extremely advanced understanding of human psychology. This is something he repeats over and over again. Men are moved by two levers only, fear and self-interest. A few years later, he says the same thing. Men are guided by nothing else than self-interest. This is something the founders of the advertising industry like Albert Lasker, Claude Hopkins, David Olgae, a generation later realized, and this is something we can use in our commercial lives, that you're wasting your time talking about your product or you're talking about your company. You just appeal to interest. The customer only cares what your product does.”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And the forward or the introduction of that book was written by Steve Jobs' widow, Laureen Powell Jobs. And she said something, I think it might have been the first sentence in her introduction that I thought was excellent. And she says, the best way to understand a person is to listen to that person directly. That is what this book is for Napoleon. And so one thing Napoleon, I think, would tell you and I is ask why things are the way they are and you need to think things through yourself. A few pages ago, he used the word illusions that the things that you think are actually possible. Like you're constrained by an illusion. And so he says, most sentiments are traditions. We experience them because they have preceded us. And so his point there is you can go on copying tradition and just doing what previous generations have done over and over again, or you can actually create something new and think for yourself. A large part of the book is Napoleon breaking down various historical figures that he studied. In many cases, he's like, okay, I want these traits from Alexander, or I don't want this trait from Charlemagne, or whatever the case is.”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Another thing that he's going to repeat over and over again is the fact that he believes in the great individual. And after reading this book, because Napoleon repeats it so much, I think what past founders are getting out of studying Napoleon is this just belief that you can actually change the world, that you are a great individual and that you can have an effect on things around you. And he's a bit of an elitist, and you see this here, without great men, we have only mediocre men. And if there had never been anything but mediocre men, we would still be half apes. Okay, so that is the end of the introduction. And now we get into, from here on out, it's just quotes from Napoleon speaking directly to you and I. What I thought about is I just did, I think it was episode 299, that fantastic new book on Steve Jobs.”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Something that he's going to revisit. He uses different words, but that same idea to have lived without glory, without leaving a trace of your existence is to have not lived at all. And then there's two quotes on this concept that you and I talk about all the time, which is founder mentality. Founder mentality is really this idea. It's like, I can start something that changes the world around me. And so it talks about Napoleon's temperament. The temperament is characterized by his dissatisfaction with the disorderly nature of the world such as he finds it. He creates his own world. Entrepreneurs, founders are world builders. A couple pages later, now an opponent in Napoleon's own words, he gives us his definition of creation, which I thought was fantastic. Again, founder mentality. It's this idea, hey, this thing doesn't exist. I can actually start something new that changes the world around me. The greatest, so Napoleon's definition of creation, creation, the greatest improvidization of the human mind is that which gives existence to the non-existent.”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It is so natural to me, so innate, so intimately linked with my existence, that it is like the blood that circulates in my veins, like the air that I breathe, this guy has a way with words, to aim at world empire seemed to Napoleon a most natural thing. So something you and I have talked about in the past is this idea where the greatest founders, it's not like they have a hundred different ideas. They identify a handful of principles. You see this over and over again. They identify a handful of principles that are important to them, important to the way they're building their business, and they repeat them for decades. It's the same case for Napoleon. This is something that he's going to mention the first time that's mentioned. I don't know, 15 times in this book, that he's shooting for immortality. There is no immortality, but the memory that is left in the minds of men to have lived without glory, without leaving a trace of one's existence, is to have not lived at all. Remember that line because this is”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What he considers luck, a consecutive series of great actions never is the result of chance and luck. It is always a product of planning and genius. Is it because they are lucky that great men become great? No. But being great, they have been able to master luck. What is luck? The ability to exploit accidents. The vulgar would call this luck, but it in fact it is the characteristic of genius when I got to that part. Made me think of one of my favorite quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson. He said, shallow men believe in luck. They believe in circumstances. Strong men believe in cause and effect. Napoleon believed in cause and effect. Back to this idea about going after your life with maximum energy and drive and passion. Hesitation is fatal. Once an action has begun, it must be followed through with the utmost exertion of the will. And then a few pages later, he tells us what we should be directing our will at, and that is figuring out what your destiny is. If I have any ambition,”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Chief doctrine, I want to read that quote again. All my life I've sacrificed everything, comfort, self, interest, happiness to my destiny. Destiny must be fulfilled. That is my chief doctrine, so figuring out what your destiny is the first step, and then doing whatever. All these ideas that come into your mind to Napoleon are just the prerequisite to action. He's constantly repeating, think about it, figure out what you want to do, and then make it happen in the real world. There's actually a quote from Mark Andreessen, which is one of my favorite quotes I've ever come across. I covered this back on episode 50, and this is what Mark's about to say here. Napoleon definitely would agree with, and I think the truth of this statement manifested in Napoleon's life. The world is a very malleable place. If you know what you want and you go for it with maximum energy and drive and passion, the world will often reconfigure itself around you much more quickly and easily than you would think. And so to that degree, not only did Napoleon build his own world, but he built his own reality. And so he has his own definitions of words. This is how...”
2023-05-08 · Founders · #302 Napoleon (The Mind of Napoleon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source