Transcript
Introduction
It surprised who knew him well that in old age, Rockefeller compared himself to Napoleon. The revelation came while vacationing in France, not far from a spot where the general won a great victory. A casual remark from a companion led to an extraordinary soliloquy, Rockefeller's longest on record. This is what he said. "It is hard to imagine Napoleon as a businessman, but I have thought that if he had applied himself to commerce, he would have been the greatest businessman the world has ever known. What a genius for organization."
"He also had what I've always regarded as the prime necessity for a large success in any enterprise. That is a thorough understanding of men and ability to inspire in them confidence in him and confidence in themselves. See them and he picked as marshals and the heights to which they rose under his inspiration and leadership. It is by such traits as these that men get the work of the world done. It is all a battlefield."
"Napoleon, without the able marshals he had about him, would not have been the master of his age. He went into a battle with the knowledge that his marshals could be dependent on, that in a given situation, they could be relied upon to do the necessary things. Their devotion to him, coupled with their enthusiasm. That's another great attribute. And the qualities with which his influence upon them brought out won the fight."
"Another thing about Napoleon was is humanity. I mean humanity in the broad sense, of course. He came direct from the ranks of the people. There was none of that stagnant blood of nobility or royalty in his veins. That's where he had the advantage over the monarchs of Europe to begin with. He could think quicker and along more individual and original lines than any of them. The men whom he had to combat didn't understand either him or the people, and it is always hard to successfully control what you don't understand. Napoleon didn't play the game as they understood it."
"And then coming direct from the people, he had their sympathy. He appealed to their imaginations. Europe had not yet been educated to the fact that it could get along without any kings at all. Leaders of their own kind were few, and that made it easier for Napoleon to rise to the heights with which he attained. A Napoleon would be impossible in our day. There are too many able and ambitious rivals to hold and check one who aimed too high."
That is not an excerpt from the book that I'm going to talk to you about today. That's actually an excerpt from a book that I read a few months ago. It's all the way back on Episode 254. It is called John D.: The Founding Fathers of the Rockefellers. And it was written by David Freeman Hawke. The book that I'm going to talk to you about today is Napoleon: A Concise Biography. And it's written by David A. Bell.
And real quick before I jump into the book, I'm doing an in-person meet-up in Miami with Shane Parrish from the Farnam Street Blog and The Knowledge Project Podcast. It is going to be on the night of April 18. Shane set up a landing page where you can enter email if you are interested in attending. And I will leave that link down below in case you want to come.
Okay. So I want to start with the inside cover of the book because I think it gives a fantastic overview of Napoleon and the author's perspective of Napoleon. And he writes, "Napoleon's astounding life and military genius have captured imaginations for two centuries." That excerpt I just read to you where Rockefeller is commenting on his admiration for Napoleon, he said that over 100 years ago.