YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → How A True Workaholic Works

How A True Workaholic Works — Transcript

by Nic Munoz · 11,051 words · 1,605 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00Napoleon was one of the greatest
0:01workaholics in history, so much so that
0:03even John D. Rockefeller, probably the
0:06greatest entrepreneur of all time, said
0:08that, "I have thought that if he had
0:10applied himself to commerce and
0:11industry, he would have been the
0:13greatest businessman the world has ever
0:15known." In preparation for this video, I
0:17read as much as I possibly could on
0:19Napoleon's work habits, his life, and
0:21his routine. And let me tell you that as
0:23I've been studying him, I've come to
0:24realize that especially in the world of
0:27AI, when you have to be commanding
0:29agents, Napoleon is the most important
0:31person in history that you can study.
0:33So, in this video, we're going over the
0:3515 work habits that made Napoleon
0:38Bonaparte, starting with the first one,
0:40compartmentalization. The most important
0:42thing when it comes to how Napoleon
0:43works is in his mind. He was able to
0:46compartmentalize things like no other
0:48human ever before. In this Andrew
0:50Roberts biography, it describes as this
0:52amazing quote. It says, "Napoleon was
0:54capable of compartmentalizing his life
0:56so that one set of concerns never
0:58spilled over into another. Probably a
1:00necessary attribute for any great
1:02statesman, but one he possessed to an
1:04extraordinary degree. Different subjects
1:06and different affairs are arranged in my
1:07head as in a cupboard. When I wish to
1:09interrupt a one train of thought, I shut
1:11that drawer and open another. Do I wish
1:13to sleep? I simply close all the drawers
1:15and there I am, asleep." What you have
1:17to understand about Napoleon is that he
1:19is literally the equivalent of a
1:21modern-day CEO. How his army was
1:23structured was exactly how a modern-day
1:25corporation is structured today. He has
1:27himself as the top general right at the
1:29top, and then underneath him, he has all
1:31these groups of people called corps. And
1:33a corps is pretty much a mini army. Each
1:35corps is led by a very competent general
1:37like a Davout or a Murat or a Ney, and
1:40Napoleon just talks to all of his
1:42generals underneath him. And when you
1:43look at Napoleon's army as a whole, this
1:45is exactly how a modern-day business is
1:47sort of run. You have the CEO at the
1:49top, and then underneath the CEO, you
1:51have all these directors that report to
1:52the CEO that command the troops on the
1:54front lines. The point is that if
1:55Napoleon were alive right now, he would
1:57probably be a CEO and he would probably
1:59be the best CEO. And what this comes
2:01down to is the ability to
2:03compartmentalize different subjects and
2:05different problems in his mind. I mean,
2:06Napoleon on a day-to-day had to deal
2:08with a crazy amount of things. The
2:10vision of the army, the enemy movements,
2:12the supply lines, negotiating peace
2:14agreements, the morale of the army,
2:16every problem that could possibly spring
2:18up in a business was always on his plate
2:20at all times. And yet, even in this
2:22complete chaos, Napoleon was able to
2:25always concentrate on one thing at one
2:27time and block out everything else.
2:29That's what made him great. A modern
2:31example of someone who does this
2:32extremely well and who's probably a
2:34modern-day version of Napoleon is Elon
2:36Musk. In his biography by Walter
2:38Isaacson, which I have right here, in
2:40this book the author describes how Elon
2:42works and he describes Elon as a serial
2:44tasker. You could describe Napoleon in
2:46the exact same way. But what Elon does
2:48is he is someone who is always working
2:50on the bottleneck of the company and he
2:51focuses all of his attention on the
2:53bottleneck until it is comp pletely
2:55solved. Then he'll take a break for 5
2:57minutes and play Polytopia or play on X
2:59and then moves on to the next bottleneck
3:01and completely focuses on that. I cannot
3:04stress this enough. Napoleon is the
3:05exact same way. When he's answering
3:07correspondence, he is completely focused
3:09on it. When he's strategizing a military
3:11campaign, he is completely focused on
3:14the strategy. But the point is that
3:15whatever he's focused on, he is 100%
3:18completely focused on that thing. There
3:21is no outside world except for his work,
3:24the work in front of him that needs to
3:26get done, and him solving it. There's
3:28There's just nothing outside of it.
3:30That's what compartmentalization is.
3:32Let's go back to the Andrew Roberts
3:33biography and believe me, we are going
3:35to be going back to this book a lot. An
3:38aide-de-camp wrote of how much his staff
3:39admired the strength of mind and the
3:41facility with which he could take off or
3:43fix the whole force of his attention on
3:45whatever he pleased. In the middle of
3:47this hurricane in his private life and
3:49the growing knowing realization that the
3:50woman he worshipped was at best lukewarm
3:53in her affections towards him, Napoleon
3:55was putting the finishing touches to a
3:57bold campaign plan that would lead to a
3:59string of seven or more victories on top
4:01of the five already won. Guys, this
4:04quote is from when Napoleon is in Egypt
4:06going out conquering and he gets word
4:09that his woman Josephine back in Paris
4:11is cheating on him and it gets even
4:13worse because he literally wrote her a
4:15letter asking him if this is true. This
4:17letter gets intercepted by the British
4:19and the British take it and they publish
4:20it everywhere making him out to seem
4:22like a All this going on, there's
4:24all this propaganda around him, his name
4:26is being tarnished, his reputation is
4:28being ruined, the woman he loves is
4:30completely cheating on him and he is
4:33completely putting it away in a
4:34different box. It's non-existent to him.
4:37He is purely focused on the strategy and
4:39the mission of conquering Egypt. That is
4:41literally how great Napoleon is. Key
4:43lesson, when you are doing work, you
4:45have to put everything aside. You have
4:47to live in a world that doesn't exist, a
4:49world where there's only you and the
4:51problem, the work that's right in front
4:53of you. There has to be a maniacal sense
4:56of focus. It's super simple but no one
4:58does it. I have read hundreds of
5:00biographies. You can look at these
5:01shelves, I've read all of them. Over 200
5:03and the one lesson that these is the one
5:06single thing that you should take from
5:07all of them is this lesson of focus.
5:10Napoleon was so brilliant because he had
5:11masterful control of focus and he was
5:14able to compartmentalize things in his
5:16mind. So much so that even the
5:17psychologist that Sigmund Freud
5:19commented on this and I was weirded out
5:21finding this out but it's super
5:23interesting what Freud has to say on
5:24Napoleon. He said, Freud believed that
5:26Bonaparte was an exceptionally good
5:27sleeper, someone who could dispose of
5:29his waking thoughts simply by deciding
5:31to go to sleep. Freud imagined that once
5:33Bonaparte was asleep, his robust ego
5:35would have resisted anything that
5:37attempted to wake him up, even the
5:39infernal noise of an exploding cart,
5:41horse and girl. This is how well
5:42Napoleon was able to compartmentalize
5:44things in his mind and if you want to
5:46become a great man of history or just a
5:48great worker, a great CEO, a great
5:50founder, anything great in general,
5:52learn this lesson of focus and learn how
5:54to compartmentalize things in your mind.
5:56Two, sleep around the work. One of the
5:59craziest things about Napoleon is that
6:00he was able to sleep a very little and
6:02still get a huge amount of work done.
6:04And Andrew Roberts actually describes
6:06his sleep ethic in his biography. He
6:08said, "He needed 7 hours sleep in 24,
6:10but he slept as one secretary recalled
6:12in several short naps broken at will
6:15during the night as in the day. Since
6:16his bedroom was close to his study in
6:18all his palaces, he could be at work in
6:20his dressing gown at any time of the day
6:22or night with his secretaries on
6:24rotations to take dictation." It's
6:27actually so mind-blowing how optimized
6:29Napoleon was for everything that he
6:31literally had different secretaries
6:32rotating positions throughout different
6:34parts of the night so that he could
6:35literally wake up and start dictating at
6:37a moment's notice. But it gets even
6:38crazier because this was a schedule in
6:40Paris when he was really governing
6:42mostly. But his schedule when he's on
6:45campaign is completely different and
6:46it's just this superhuman level of work
6:49ethic. Napoleon would often sleep for
6:51just an hour or two a night, then take
6:53short naps in the day, sometimes while
6:54fully clothed lying on the table or
6:56sitting upright in his carriage so he
6:58could continue working without delay.
7:00And keep in mind that this isn't just
7:01one source commenting on how little
7:03Napoleon was able to sleep, but this is
7:05many, many people throughout his life in
7:07his Imperial Guard or in Josephine's
7:09crowd that are commenting on his ability
7:12to sleep very little hours. Thomas
7:14Bugeaud of the Imperial Guard wrote to
7:15his sister on November 30th and told how
7:18within 2 miles of the enemy the emperor
7:20came there himself and slept in his
7:22carriage in the middle of our camp. He
7:24was always walking through all the camps
7:26and talking to the soldiers or their
7:27officers. And on top of that, another
7:29soldier from the Italian campaign again
7:31said, "Bonaparte sleeps among us. He
7:33walks with us. He looks us in the eye."
7:35This is one of those principles that
7:37makes Napoleon out to be one of those
7:38mythological figures like an Achilles or
7:41an Odysseus, right? But Napoleon was a
7:43real person and he was actually able to
7:45operate this way. He was able to operate
7:47very functionally with very little
7:50sleep. And everyone commented on this,
7:51which is kind of one of those things
7:53that makes him superhuman. But, I think
7:55there is an actual principle that you
7:56can take from this. You see, one thing
7:58that you see with a lot of CEOs in the
8:00modern day is that they are so
8:02completely optimized, but they are
8:04completely optimized about the wrong
8:06things. They like need 8 hours of sleep
8:08or else they can't work. They have to
8:10sleep on their eight sleep and get the
8:12coldest like foam for their sleep or
8:14else they can't work. Uh but, when you
8:16look at the greats of history, like a
8:17lot of them weren't like this. While on
8:19campaigns, Caesar, Hannibal, and
8:21Alexander were all sleeping in tents
8:23with their soldiers. During sprints to a
8:25new invention, Edison, Tesla, and Newton
8:27were all sleeping in their labs. And on
8:29top of that, the main key lesson from
8:31this is that they all slept around their
8:33work. Napoleon operated in the same way
8:35as all these greats. He didn't sleep
8:36when he needed rest. He slept when the
8:38work allowed him to sleep. And that's
8:41really the lesson. When you look at the
8:42greats of history and you see that
8:43they're in a sprint, that they're really
8:44going for something with all their
8:46heart, with all their energy, and with
8:47all their soul, they always sleep around
8:50the work. Three, dictation at all hours.
8:52Now, compartmentalization and sleeping
8:54around the work are great principles,
8:56but we're going to get into something
8:57that's way more applicable for the
8:58modern world. And I've actually never
9:00heard anyone talk about this. The reason
9:02is because as the world progresses more
9:04into the age of AI and the age of AI
9:07agents, there are still a lot of
9:08principles that are going to stand the
9:10test of time, and this is probably the
9:12most important one. Let me explain this
9:13with another source. One of the women in
9:15Josephine's entourage actually has a
9:17whole bunch of letters, and in a lot of
9:19the parts of these letters, she talks
9:21about Napoleon. And in one of them, she
9:22said, "Bonaparte dictated with great
9:25ease. He never wrote anything with his
9:26own hand. His handwriting was bad and as
9:28illegible to himself as to others, and
9:31his spelling was very defective. He
9:33utterly lacked patience to do anything
9:35whatever with his own hands. The extreme
9:37activity of his mind and the habitual
9:39prompt obedience rendered to him
9:41prevented him from practicing any
9:43occupation in which the mind must
9:45necessarily wait for the action of the
9:47body. Those who wrote from his
9:48dictation, first Monsieur Bourrienne,
9:50then Monsieur Maret, and Méneval, his
9:53private secretary, had made a shorthand
9:55for themselves in order that their pens
9:57might travel as fast as his thoughts. He
9:59dictated while walking to and fro in his
10:01cabin. When he grew angry, he would use
10:03violent imprecations which were
10:05suppressed in and which had at least the
10:07advantage of giving the writer time to
10:09catch up with him. He never repeated
10:11anything that he had once said, even if
10:14it had not been heard, and this was very
10:16hard on the poor secretary. For
10:17Bonaparte remembered accurately what he
10:20had said and detected every omission. He
10:22always derived amusement from causing
10:24anyone uneasiness and distress. His
10:26great general principle, which he had
10:28applied to everything both great and
10:30small, was that there could be no zeal
10:32where there was no disquietude. Now,
10:34there are million pieces of gold in this
10:36little tiny paragraph. But, the reason
10:38why I wanted to tell you this is to show
10:40you that Napoleon was a master at
10:43dictation. You see, after Napoleon
10:44became emperor, he never had to write
10:47things down himself. What he did was he
10:48had all these secretaries constantly
10:50around him. He would walk around the
10:52room and talk about what he wanted them
10:54to write, and they would write down
10:55handwrite exactly what he said. Because
10:58you can speak faster than you can write,
10:59and so this allowed Napoleon to be extra
11:01efficient and extra fast. Keep in mind
11:03that Napoleon throughout his life would
11:05write 50,000 letters. When you think
11:07about how much you yourself have written
11:09in your own life and then compare it to
11:11the output of Napoleon, you just come to
11:12the realization that this guy is just
11:14better. He just has more output. He just
11:17does more. And you actually get the same
11:19feeling with a lot of the greats in
11:20history. It's just book after book after
11:22book. You see that their output and
11:24their writing is insanely high. You have
11:27Hamilton with the Federalist Papers,
11:29Caesar with his writings on his
11:30campaigns, and Napoleon is the exact
11:32same. So, what does this have to do with
11:34AI and the modern world? And hold with
11:36me here because this is probably the
11:38most brilliant realization I've had
11:40recently where you really get to see the
11:42remarkableness of Napoleon. I just moved
11:44to Austin, and I've been surrounded with
11:46some of the top founders and CEOs in the
11:48world. And one thing that I found that I
11:50don't see a lot of people talking about
11:52on the internet is that they were always
11:54talking to their phones. The world is
11:56changing, and what you're finding is
11:58that the keyboard or the touchpad on
12:00your phone, the type board, they're just
12:02going extinct. More and more people are
12:05now dictating to their AI, and that's
12:07why it's so important to study history
12:09because Napoleon was the master at
12:11dictation. At a moment's notice, he
12:13always had a secretary around him to
12:15begin dictating even in the middle of
12:17the night like we talked about before,
12:19and he wouldn't wait for them. He would
12:20talk as fast as he wanted to, and he
12:22would always expect them to keep up.
12:24Because he was so good at dictation, his
12:26communication was also flawless, and
12:28because of this, he was able to clearly
12:30give orders to his army, deal with
12:31politicians efficiently, and organize
12:33community projects with just singular
12:36letters. But all of this stems from the
12:38art of dictation, from being able to
12:40speak to your secretary, or to be able
12:42to speak to your AI. It's all about
12:44being able to speak out a letter in a
12:46moment's notice. And so, if you want to
12:48work like Napoleon, here is my
12:49recommendation. Set up a Crock-Pot or a
12:51GPT Astra or whatever AI is available to
12:54you, put it on your phone, and then be
12:56constantly dictating. Have it handle all
12:58of your communications and be dictating
13:0024/7. That is how Napoleon worked. He
13:03had secretaries writing letters around
13:04him 24/7. That's why his communication
13:07was so good, why his army was so well
13:09run. Everything stems from his mouth,
13:11and he was he just had an extreme amount
13:13of output. And that actually leads quite
13:15nicely to the next principle. Number
13:17four, the correspondence machine.
13:19Napoleon communicated with his staff
13:21much more frequently than his
13:22contemporaries. He would often send
13:24dozens of letters in a single day,
13:25dictating short messages as if you were
13:28texting. This coordinated his staff in a
13:30way that was previously unheard of.
13:34This is just so brilliant. Napoleon was
13:36living in the modern world before there
13:38was a modern world. And this principle
13:40is especially important if you are a CEO
13:42that's leading a group of managers. As I
13:44talked about earlier, Napoleon is a CEO
13:46and he had a group of generals and
13:48marshals under him that he would
13:49communicate with using letters. And so,
13:51I wanted to use this section to talk a
13:53little bit about what Napoleon talked
13:55about in his letters and how Napoleon
13:57wrote these letters so that you can have
13:58a bit more of an understanding of how
14:00the communication should be at your
14:02company. The first thing is that your
14:03communication should be a constant flow
14:06of information. When you look at how
14:08much mail Napoleon sent out in a single
14:10day, there's a great description in this
14:11here that really shows this. On that day
14:14alone, Napoleon had written letters to
14:15Davout complaining of the marauding of
14:17the Württemberger troops in Poland, to
14:20Clark about raising a company of Alban
14:22Sappers, to Marie Louise saying that he
14:24had been 12 hours in the saddle since
14:262:00 a.m., to Cambacérès that the
14:28frontier was quiet, to Eugène ordering
14:3030,000 bushels of barley, and no fewer
14:33than 24 letters to Berthier about
14:35everything from a paymaster who should
14:37be punished for incompetence to a fever
14:40hospital that needed to be relocated.
14:42Preparing for the attack on Russia
14:44caused Napoleon to write nearly 500
14:46letters to Berthier between the
14:48beginning of January 1812 and the
14:51crossing of the Niemen and another 631
14:54to Davout, Clark, Lacuée, and Murat
14:57between them. This level of output for
14:59communication is genuinely insane. It's
15:01almost unheard of and it allows his
15:03presence to really be felt in his
15:05organization. That's super important.
15:07I'm going to repeat that. Your presence
15:09needs to be felt. It needs to be felt.
15:11It needs to be felt. It needs to be
15:12felt. Your company is an extension of
15:15you. If you are the founder, your
15:16company is an extension of you and your
15:18presence needs to be felt. Another quote
15:21from the enter Robert's biography,
15:22"Napoleon's divisional commanders were
15:24immediately impressed by his capacity
15:26for hard work. Subordinates could never
15:28say they would attend to something and
15:29then let it slide. And the staff, who
15:32had been stationary in Nice for 4 years,
15:34suddenly felt the pulsating effect of
15:37Napoleon's energy. In the 9 months
15:39between his arrival in Nice and the end
15:41of 1796, he sent more than 800 letters
15:44and dispatches, covering everything from
15:46where drummer boys should stand in
15:47parades to conditions under which the
15:49Marseille should be played." I
15:51absolutely love that sentence. His army
15:53felt the pulsating effect of Napoleon's
15:56energy. Geez, that is absolutely
15:58brilliant. Your company needs to feel
15:59your energy pulsating through it. Think
16:01about the way Elon's energy pulsates
16:03through SpaceX and Bezos at Amazon and
16:05Bill Gates at Microsoft. And this is why
16:07the amount of output that comes from you
16:09is so important because it is the output
16:11of your communication to your generals
16:14that allows your presence to be felt,
16:16that allows your energy to pulsate and
16:18ripple through the company. The book
16:19gets even crazier when it describes it
16:21what the communication was actually
16:22like. Like, what is actually in these
16:24letters? "The avalanche of praise he
16:26generally lavished on his troops was in
16:28sharp contrast to the acerbic tone he
16:30adopted towards his generals,
16:31ambassadors, counselors, ministers, and
16:33indeed his own family in private
16:35correspondence. Severe to officers was
16:38his stated mantra, kindly to the men."
16:40Whoa, that last line is so insanely
16:43brilliant. If you can't tell, I'm going
16:44to be repeating a lot of the lines in
16:46this episode. "Severe to the officers,
16:49kindly to the men." This is another
16:51recurring pattern. Napoleon is extremely
16:53strict with his officers. He is very
16:55clear and concise in his letters to them
16:57and he knows that he needs to be hard on
16:59them in order to drive results. He is a
17:01lot nicer, a lot more enthusiastic, and
17:04a lot more general in his bulletins
17:06where he's writing to the masses of
17:07people where in Napoleon's words, he was
17:09kindly to the men. The point is this, as
17:12a correspondence machine, you want to
17:13make your letters extremely short,
17:15concise, and just to the point. That
17:17along with a huge amount of output will
17:19make your presence be felt at a company
17:21and will increase the speed of your
17:22organization vastly. And on top of that,
17:25if you want to be a correspondence
17:26machine, then you need to be constantly
17:28consuming the best information even at
17:30night. I mean, Napoleon would get up in
17:32the middle of the night and start
17:33dictating to his secretaries. I know
17:35that sounds crazy, but it's true. And
17:37that is why if you are a founder or a
17:38CEO or a conqueror, I recommend the
17:41FitNexa Somnipods 3. Let me put them up
17:44close to the camera so you can actually
17:45see how cool they are. I pretty much
17:47listen to something 24/7, whether it's
17:49an audiobook or a podcast or some sort
17:51of AI. I always have something in my
17:53ear. I'm constantly constantly listening
17:55to something. And I've been using these
17:56Somnipods 3 for a couple months now and
17:58they are just so great. I mean, my
18:00favorite part about them is that I can
18:01even sleep in them. I always had this
18:03problem where I would put on headphones,
18:05but they would always press against the
18:06pillow or they would fall off after I
18:08fell asleep. But my favorite thing about
18:10these things is that they're really
18:12small and fit right in your ears, so
18:13they don't press into the pillow at all.
18:15And I always wake up with them still in
18:16my ear and they're super comfy, so after
18:19a while you don't really notice them,
18:20which has always been the problem for me
18:22with other ear pods. The noise canceling
18:24is really good, so you can listen to
18:25white noise or a podcast without turning
18:27the volume super high. I mean, just last
18:29night I was listening to a podcast on
18:31P.T. Barnum and I was just thinking
18:32about how amazing these little ear pods
18:34are. I mean, just look how stylish they
18:36are, too. Like they look good. So if you
18:38are a founder who wants to consume more
18:39information and fall asleep in extremely
18:41comfortable ear pods, you can check them
18:43out using my link. And if you use promo
18:45code Nick Mihailovski's 10, you will get
18:46$10 off your purchase. Once again, that
18:49is the link in the description or you
18:50can go to fitnexa.com. Now onto number
18:53five, eat little food. So we already
18:56talked about how little Napoleon needed
18:58to sleep, but the other thing that
19:00Napoleon needed a very little of is
19:02food. I don't have this one with me on
19:03my shelf or anything, but there's this
19:05author named Las Cases, which documented
19:07Napoleon's life on Saint Helena, which
19:09is the island that he was exiled to the
19:12second time. And in his book on him, he
19:14wrote, "Nature," he said, "had endowed
19:15him with two important advantages. The
19:18one was the power of sleeping whenever
19:20he needed repose at any hour and in any
19:22place. Another was that he was incapable
19:24of committing any injurious excess
19:26either in eating or drinking. If," said
19:29he, "I would go the least beyond my
19:30mark, my stomach instantly revolts."
19:32Now, this was true for his entire life,
19:34but when he became sick on Saint Helena,
19:36this was especially true. The book
19:38continues, "The emperor eats very
19:40irregularly, but generally very little.
19:42He often says that a man may hurt
19:43himself by eating too much, but never by
19:46eating too little. He will remain four
19:48and 20 hours without eating only to get
19:50an appetite for the ensuing day. But if
19:52he eats little, he drinks still less. A
19:54single glass of Madeira or champagne is
19:56sufficient to restore his strength and
19:58to produce cheerfulness of spirits. He
20:00sleeps very little and very irregularly,
20:02generally rising at daybreak to read or
20:04write and afterwards lying down to sleep
20:07again." Now, on top of this, Napoleon
20:09was an extremely fast eater. When he
20:11wasn't on campaign, his meals would last
20:13around 20 to 30 minutes, which was slow
20:15for him. Because when he was on
20:16campaign, his meals would only be eight
20:19to 15 minutes. I Sorry I keep bringing
20:21up Elon, but it's insane how similar
20:23they are. And in this biography, the
20:25author actually had dinner with Elon.
20:27And in the dinner, the author describes
20:29how Elon literally devoured a steak in
20:31like a single gulp. And then one of
20:33Elon's workers who said that Elon does
20:35everything fast, that he even pees fast
20:37is what he said in the biography. It's
20:38so weird because having weird food
20:40habits is actually something that you
20:41see in a lot of these biographies of
20:44great men. Steve Jobs had a lot of weird
20:46diets throughout his life, sometimes
20:48eating only fruits and vegetables,
20:50sometimes eating only a certain type of
20:52fruit that was picked on a certain type
20:54of day. Michael Jackson was kind of
20:56similar, being a vegetarian for a lot of
20:58his life. Newton, Da Vinci, Tesla were
21:00all notoriously known for being light
21:02eaters. And so there's definitely
21:03something to this, and I'd like to share
21:04my theory on why this is a thing. When
21:07you go back to hunter-gatherer times,
21:08whenever you were hungry, you went to go
21:10hunt and that's how you got food. And
21:12when you think of when your body is most
21:13optimized in the day, it's when you're
21:15hungry because you need food. And so,
21:17your mind and your body is already
21:19optimized to go hunt. Now, the modern
21:21equivalent of hunting is working. And
21:23so, when we're working, we're in the
21:24optimized state of work. And so, I think
21:27when you look at history and you see a
21:28lot of these great people being light
21:30eaters, it is because they're always in
21:32this optimal state of work. I don't know
21:34if this theory holds up. I've tried it
21:36in my own life. I'm also a very light
21:37eater and it actually works really well.
21:39I always feel like I'm in an optimal
21:41state of work. But, you know, other
21:42people might say differently. Six,
21:44complete concentration. This one
21:46[clears throat] is absolute gold because
21:48so many of the principles that you use
21:50in war can also be used in business. And
21:53this is probably the most important one
21:55because it goes back to the primary
21:56lesson of focus. Going back to the
21:58Andrew Roberts biography, it talks about
22:00the difference between Napoleon's style
22:02of warfare and the Austrian's style of
22:04warfare, who was Napoleon's enemy. By
22:06contrast, Napoleon planned to adopt a
22:08daring maneuver known in military
22:10academies as the strategy of the central
22:12position. He would remain between the
22:14two forces opposing him and would strike
22:16first at one and then at the other
22:18before they would coalesce. It was a
22:20strategy to which he would adhere
22:22throughout his career. It is contrary to
22:24all principle to make cores which have
22:26no communication act separately against
22:28a central force whose communications are
22:30open. This was one of his maxims of war.
22:33So, the strategy of the central position
22:35is so brilliant. Pretty much, Napoleon
22:37would get his entire army together into
22:39one big block. He would then try to
22:41divide the enemies army into two little
22:44blocks. Then, after his enemies army is
22:46divided, he would turn his whole army
22:48into the one block and completely
22:50destroy it before turning around and
22:51conquering the other block. This would
22:53allow his entire army to focus all of
22:55its force on one half of his enemies
22:57army and completely destroy them before
22:59the enemies army even has time to think
23:01about attacking the other half. The
23:02exact principle of this strategy can
23:04also be applied to your work. When your
23:06concentration is divided, the impact
23:08lessens. But if you simply completely
23:10attack one task until it is completely
23:12annihilated, and only then move on to
23:14the next task, things will go much
23:16better for you. Never split your forces.
23:18This is how you lose. Now, going back to
23:20Elon Walter Isaacson's book, Walter
23:22Isaac talks about Elon being a serial
23:24tasker because he will completely focus
23:26on one task until it is completely
23:28finished before moving on to the next
23:29task. Most people try to be
23:31multitaskers. They try to focus on
23:33multiple things at the same time, and
23:35they never get anything done. But if you
23:36are a serial tasker, you focus first on
23:38one thing until it is completely
23:39finished, and then move on to the next
23:41thing, you will get twice as much done
23:43as the multitasker. Simply because all
23:45of your concentration is on one thing.
23:47Once again, I will say, "Never split
23:49your forces. That is how you lose."
23:51Focus is on an exponential curve. On
23:53Saint Helen, Napoleon would read for 12
23:56hours straight, not doing anything else.
23:58When he did something, he did that thing
24:00until it was completely finished.
24:01Another thing that a lot of people
24:03comment on Napoleon is his eyes. When he
24:05would stare at people, he was with a
24:07complete concentration. He wouldn't be
24:09looking around the room. He would have
24:11two eyes completely set on that person.
24:13And multiple people throughout his life
24:15commented on him. And what's even
24:16crazier is that a lot of great men have
24:18this exact same stare. That you just see
24:20people around them comment on this
24:21intense stare. And it's because they're
24:23so focused on what they're doing. John
24:25D. Rockefeller, Steve Jobs, Michael
24:27Jackson, everyone commented on this this
24:30intense stare that he had. Same with
24:32Julius Caesar and Napoleon, the
24:33conquerors. Every one of these great men
24:35had this intense focused stare. And
24:38everyone comments on it. And it is my
24:39belief that it is because it is the
24:41strategy of the central position. When
24:43they are focused on a person, they are
24:44completely focused on the person, and
24:46the entire world just fades away. So,
24:49this is a simple concept that you can
24:50apply in all aspects in life. In war, in
24:53conversations, in your work. Focus on
24:57one thing until it is completely done
24:59and only then move on to the next thing.
25:01Don't try to be a multitasker, be a
25:03serial tasker. One thing until it's
25:05finished and only then move on to the
25:07next thing. Number seven, create
25:09systems. This, in my opinion, is the
25:11most important principle that made
25:13Napoleon so great after he became an
25:15emperor and this was his invention of
25:17the core system. Napoleon pioneered an
25:19operational level of warfare that lies
25:21between strategy and tactics. His corps
25:24has become the standard unit adopted by
25:26every European army by 1812 and which
25:28lasted until 1945. It was his unique
25:31contribution to the art of war and its
25:33first use in 1805 can be regarded as
25:36heralding the birth of modern warfare. I
25:39love that description because the core
25:40system is really the crown jewel of
25:42Napoleon when it comes to invention.
25:44Maybe Napoleonic law comes close, but in
25:46my opinion, the core system is just
25:48truly brilliant. Yes, I know Napoleon
25:50didn't actually invent the core system,
25:52but when you look at history, the only
25:53person you remember when it comes to the
25:55core system is Napoleon and that on this
25:57chan- in this channel is what matters.
25:59Let me tell you a little bit more about
26:00the system. Maneuvers between 1803
26:04allowed Napoleon to divide his army into
26:06units of 20,000 to 30,000 men, sometimes
26:09up to 40,000 and to train them
26:10intensely. Each corps was effectively a
26:13mini army with its own infantry,
26:15cavalry, artillery, staff, intelligence,
26:17engineering, transport, victualing, pay,
26:20medical, and commissary sections
26:23intended to work in close connection
26:24with other corps. Moving within a one
26:26day's march of each other, they allowed
26:28Napoleon to swap around the rear guard,
26:30vanguard, or reserve at a moment's
26:32notice depending on the movements of the
26:34enemy. So, in either attack or retreat,
26:36the whole army could pivot on its axis
26:38without confusion. Corps could also
26:40march far enough apart from each other
26:42not to cause victualing problems in the
26:44countryside. The core system was not
26:46just what allowed Napoleon to do so
26:48much, but it's also what allowed him to
26:49move so fast and on top of that be more
26:52flexible than any army in the world at
26:54the time. And a lot of this was because
26:55Napoleon didn't have to talk to the
26:57entire army. He could simply talk to his
26:59top generals, and they would go and lead
27:02the cores. The work principle here is
27:04simple, and that's that you need to
27:05create systems that allow you to move
27:07faster and be more flexible. There's two
27:10ways in history that you can really go
27:11about this. The first way is the way
27:13Napoleon did it. It's also how Jensen
27:15did it at Nvidia, or how Rockefeller did
27:17it at Standard Oil. It's based on cores.
27:19So, pretty much what a core is, it's a
27:20mini army. Each army has its own
27:22cavalry, its own infantry. It has all
27:24the different parts of his army, and it
27:26can move on its own. Napoleon's whole
27:28army was a bunch of cores, a bunch of
27:30little armies that he could get the best
27:32generals to work for, and he would only
27:33communicate with the generals. Or you
27:35can do it the second way, which is more
27:36of how Elon Musk did it, or Steve Jobs,
27:38where you build cores based on sections.
27:41So, think about how at Apple, Steve Jobs
27:42had a section for the Lisa, and a
27:44section for the Macintosh, and a section
27:46for the Apple II. Each one of these was
27:48effectively a core, only they each
27:49focused on a different part of the
27:51company. Or Elon at SpaceX, where he
27:53divided it into five sections that
27:54included propulsion, relationships, uh
27:57aeronautics, stuff like that. And so,
27:59each different core is more based on an
28:01area rather than all similar cores. The
28:03really important thing to take away from
28:05this, though, is that you need cores
28:06under you. You need groups of people,
28:08and then really competent people leading
28:10those groups of people. This was really
28:12important in Napoleon's life, and it
28:14even talks about in the memoirs of Remi
28:16Son, how focused Napoleon was on leading
28:19the people in his cores. I mean, he
28:21literally thought about his officers'
28:22names as he went to sleep. And believe
28:25me, this is an unbelievable quote.
28:27"Bonaparte's reception by the troops was
28:29nothing short of rapturous. It was well
28:31worth seeing how he talked to the
28:32soldiers, how he questioned them one
28:34after the other, respecting their
28:36campaigns or their wounds, taking
28:37particular interest in the men who had
28:39accompanied him to Egypt. I've heard
28:41Madame Bonaparte say that her husband
28:43was in the constant habit of pouring
28:45over the list of what are called the
28:47cadres of the army at night before he
28:49slept. He would go to sleep repeating
28:51the names of the corps and even those of
28:53some of the individuals who compose
28:54them. He kept these names in a corner of
28:56his memory and this habit came to his
28:58aid when he wanted to recognize a
29:00soldier and to give him the pleasure of
29:01a cheering word from his general. He
29:04spoke to the subalterns in a tone of
29:06good fellowship which delighted them all
29:07as he reminded them of their common
29:09feats of arms. If you want to work like
29:11Napoleon then you need corps. The better
29:13you can get at building managing and
29:15running corps then the more effective
29:17you will be. Eight, speed, speed, speed.
29:20The next three principles are going to
29:22be similar but I couldn't get rid of any
29:24of these quotes. They are all
29:25phenomenal. I can't believe I got these
29:27quotes from $20 bucks. All of the next
29:30three principles are about moving fast
29:31and being a complete bundle of energy.
29:34For Napoleon, he once told men of all
29:36that after he had left Brienne he
29:38started to work 16 hours a day and never
29:40stopped. Everything around Napoleon
29:42happened at a tremendous pace. Mollien
29:45recalled him going from a mass to a
29:46levée at Saint-Cloud in the summer of
29:481806 walking fast with an escort of
29:51foreign princes and grand French
29:53dignitaries who were out of breath in
29:55their efforts to keep up with him. He
29:57hated wasting a minute of the day and
29:59was constantly performing several tasks
30:01simultaneously.
30:03>> [laughter]
30:03>> Napoleon moved with a speed that was
30:05unmatchable. He was fast in everything
30:08that he did and this philosophy really
30:10reflected in his corps. He forced his
30:12corps to live off of the land so that
30:14they could move forced marched them
30:16throughout the day so that they would be
30:17the fastest moving army. He did
30:19everything that he possibly could. He
30:20shouted at them, "Faster, faster,
30:22faster." I mean, here's what the Andrew
30:23Roberts biography says. "Living off the
30:25land allowed Napoleon a speed of
30:27maneuver that was to become an essential
30:29element of his strategy. The strength of
30:31his army, he stated, like the power in
30:33mechanics, is the product of multiplying
30:36the mass by the velocity. He encouraged
30:38everything that permitted faster
30:40movements including the use of forced
30:42marches, which more or less doubled the
30:4415 miles per day a demi-brigade could
30:46move. "No man ever knew how to make an
30:49army march better than Napoleon,"
30:51recalled one of his officers. "These
30:52marches were frequently very fatiguing.
30:55Sometimes half the soldiers were left
30:56behind, but as they never lacked
30:58goodwill, they did arrive, though they
31:00arrived late." Every great army and
31:03organization throughout history that was
31:04successful moved faster than the people
31:07around them. Caesar would force march
31:09his army tens of miles every day just to
31:11build their endurance. Hannibal would
31:13march his army through swamps and
31:14mountains simply because it was faster
31:16and unexpected. When Zuckerberg was
31:18conquering universities, he literally
31:20thought of himself as Augustus going off
31:22and conquering different parts of the
31:24world. And his whole philosophy was
31:25based around speed of getting to the
31:27college faster than his competitors, of
31:29expanding and building a network of
31:31social users faster than the people
31:33around so that he could later use
31:34monopoly tactics. I mean, even when you
31:36look at evil commanders, someone like
31:38Hitler, one of the most effective parts
31:40of his strategy was speed. The
31:41blitzkrieg was a blitz, and because it
31:43was a blitz, because it was so fast, he
31:45was able to run through France. When you
31:47look at great companies in the modern
31:49day, someone like Elon is always talking
31:51about speed of light velocity. Guess who
31:53else is talking about speed of light
31:54velocity? Jensen Huang. At Nvidia, they
31:57literally have something called speed of
31:58light velocity, where every part of the
32:00chip-making process has a time of
32:02completion that is supposed to be at the
32:04speed of light. Everyone great who has
32:06done something in history was able to
32:08move fast. I always like to say, "Speed
32:10is essence. Speed is essence. Speed is
32:13essence." And so, if you want to work
32:14like Napoleon or any of the other
32:16greats, then you need speed. Nine,
32:18constantly asking for more. I know this
32:20is going to sound crazy, but when you
32:22read a lot of these biographies, there's
32:24something that I call the crybaby
32:25effect. And that's that a lot of these
32:27great people are big whiners. They're
32:30always whining and crying for more. They
32:32want more out of everything. I I the
32:35crybaby effect because when you think of
32:37a baby crying, the mother always goes
32:39and comforts him. And so the baby begins
32:41to develop this pattern in his mind that
32:42whenever it cries, the mother will go
32:44over and give him comfort and will rock
32:46him or whatever gets a baby to stop
32:49crying. I don't know. I don't have a
32:50baby. The point is that a lot of the
32:51greats are always doing this. They're
32:53crying and asking for more and they get
32:55in this loop where the more they whine,
32:57the more they complain about things,
32:59people will sort of succumb to what
33:00they're asking for. Napoleon, and I'm
33:02saying with all the love in the world,
33:04was constantly whining. At Toulon where
33:07he had the task of capturing this fort
33:09called Fort Mulgrave, this is what the
33:10book describes it as. Napoleon threw
33:12himself into the project of capturing
33:14Fort Mulgrave by keyholing nearby towns.
33:17He got together 14 cannons and four
33:19mortars as well as stores, tools, and
33:21ammunition. Constantly imploring,
33:23complaining, and raging there wasn't
33:25enough gunpowder, the cartridges were
33:27the wrong size, trained artillery horses
33:29were being requisitioned for other uses,
33:31and so he sent scores of letters with
33:33demands to Bouchotte and even on
33:36occasion to the Committee of Public
33:37Safety itself, going over the heads of
33:39Cartaux and his immediate superiors.
33:42Guys, this is insane and the book later
33:44describes a very similar situation where
33:46it says, "Certainly his demands on Paris
33:48were constant and on April 1st he
33:50managed to get 5,000 pairs of shoes
33:52delivered." His demands were constant.
33:54He was constantly writing letters to
33:56everyone to get more ammunition, asking
33:58for more troops, more supplies, more
34:00intel, more, more, more. This is what
34:03makes the greats so much of the time.
34:05They just do more. It was the exact same
34:07situation for George Washington during
34:09the Revolutionary War where he had all
34:11of these secretaries around him
34:12constantly writing and he was dictating
34:14to them and he was always asking for
34:16more, more bullets, more everything from
34:19Congress. A lot of great people make the
34:21best out of really bad situations by
34:23just asking and complaining for more.
34:25This is actually something that so many
34:26people are scared to do because they're
34:28scared of being disliked, but the people
34:30who are actually successful are not
34:32scared of being disliked. Most people
34:34who are actually great actually are
34:36disliked by the people underneath them
34:37because they're always asking for more.
34:39They're pushing their troops to be
34:40better. They're asking for more supplies
34:42in different in in different areas.
34:44Think about the best people going out to
34:45raise money right now. It's not someone
34:47who is timid and shy and asking for a
34:49low amount of money for a high
34:51percentage of the company, but it's
34:53people who are asking for very large
34:54amounts of money for a low percentage.
34:56It just makes your company seem more
34:58valuable. It makes you seem more grand.
35:00The people who are doing greater in life
35:02simply ask for more. They just ask. The
35:05worst case scenario is that the person
35:06you're asking for says no, but the best
35:08case scenario is that you get more. And
35:10more when it comes to greatness, at
35:12least when it comes to ammunition, is
35:14always better. 10, boundless boundless
35:16energy. When you study Napoleon, you
35:18will find something that is very common
35:20among the greats, but very rare among
35:22the commoners. And that is that this guy
35:24had an unbelievable amount of energy. It
35:28was just volume. So much of his success
35:30came down to the amount of output he was
35:31able to do himself. And I'll give you a
35:33couple examples. At Malta, on the way to
35:35Egypt, it says in the Andrew Roberts
35:37biography, "In his six days at Malta,
35:39Napoleon expelled all but 14 of the
35:41knights and replaced the island's
35:42medieval administrations with a
35:44governing council, dissolved the
35:45monasteries, introduced street lighting
35:47and paving, freed all of the political
35:49prisoners, installed fountains, and
35:51reformed the hospitals, postal service,
35:53and university, which was now to teach
35:55science as well as the humanities. In
35:57six days, he transformed the entire
35:59island." Like, how is this even
36:00possible? There's also another example
36:02from Las Casas who literally lived with
36:04him on St. Helena. "I have known the
36:06emperor to be engaged in business in the
36:08Council of State for eight, nine hours
36:10successively, and afterwards arise with
36:13his ideas as clear as when he sat down.
36:15I've seen him at St. Helena peruse books
36:17for 10 or 12 hours in succession on the
36:20most abstruse subjects without appearing
36:22in the least fatigued. He has suffered
36:25unmoved the greatest shocks that every
36:27man experienced. On his return from
36:29Moscow or Leipzig, after he had
36:31communicated the disastrous events in
36:34the Council of State, he said, "It has
36:36been reported in Paris that this
36:37misfortune turned my hair gray, but you
36:39see, it is not so." Pointing to his
36:41head, "And I hope I shall be able to
36:44support many other reverses, but these
36:46prodigious exertions are made only, as
36:48it were, in despite of his physical
36:50powers, which never appear less
36:52susceptible than when his mind is in
36:54full activity. His mind was in full
36:56activity." I love that. Remember that so
36:58much of being a great leader and a great
37:00worker is about being able to inspire
37:02the people around you to work as hard as
37:05you. And Napoleon was, frankly, a master
37:07at this. In war, he was to say in 1808,
37:10"Moral factors account for three
37:11quarters of the whole, relative material
37:13strength accounts for only one quarter."
37:15His personal courage had further bonded
37:17him to his men. The energy that you
37:19radiate towards your work pulsates
37:22through the company. I know we went over
37:23that at the beginning of the video, but
37:25we're going over it again because it's
37:26just the best lesson you can take. The
37:28energy that you put towards your work
37:30pulsates through the company. One thing
37:33that you find when you read a lot about
37:34the history of Apple is that Steve Jobs
37:36was yelling at everyone. People were
37:38scared to be in his presence, but he was
37:40constantly passionate about what they
37:42were building. He was constantly giving
37:43these inspirational and motivational
37:45speeches, and his energy radiated
37:48through Apple. You could feel Steve Jobs
37:50when you bought something from Apple.
37:51Elon Musk is the exact same story. When
37:53you look at a Tesla car or when you see
37:55a Cybertruck or when you look at a
37:57Starship, you see Elon's presence
37:59radiating through the product. And
38:01again, you see the same relationship
38:02where he's constantly yelling at people
38:04to do more, to be better. He was just
38:06the most energetic towards his work and
38:08towards his employees. Caesar, Hannibal,
38:11Alexander all practically the same
38:13person. They were all constantly pushing
38:15these armies. They had this intense
38:16stare. They forced marched them through
38:18these insane marches, and they would be
38:20right there at the front lines with the
38:22people fighting for them. They simply
38:24had more energy. They had poundless
38:26boundless energy and this is why they
38:28were at the top. Guys, you don't get to
38:30be remembered in history on accident.
38:32It's whole on purpose and they studied
38:34the greats of history and they took
38:36these lessons. Simple lessons. Speed,
38:38output, volume, energy. And these simple
38:41lessons are what create the greats of
38:43history. Just so you can see how insane
38:45Napoleon was about this. He said, "One
38:47can remain for 24 or if necessary 36
38:51hours without eating, but one cannot
38:53remain 3 minutes without gunpowder."
38:55Along with his energy and activity, his
38:57letters conveyed a meticulous attention
38:59to detail in everything from the price
39:01of rations to the proper building of
39:03palisades. And the funny thing is that
39:05this guy actually endured multiple days
39:07without eating because he was so
39:09focused, so concentrated on his work
39:11that he forgot to eat. You see the same
39:13thing with Leonardo da Vinci when he was
39:15painting the Last Supper. People
39:17remember him just staring at the
39:18painting forgetting to eat for a whole
39:20an entire day. If you want to work like
39:22Napoleon, you have to work like your
39:24life literally depends on it. It is this
39:26belief that you only have a limited
39:28amount of time on this earth, that life
39:30is short and you have to make use of
39:32every moment that gives you this speed
39:34is essence mentality, that your work is
39:36a life or death that allows him to work
39:38like this. This energy is the life force
39:40of every single company and you can
39:42especially see it in Napoleon's army.
39:44So, if you want to work like Napoleon,
39:46have this boundless boundless energy.
39:4811, never leave the scene of action. As
39:51the founder and CEO, you have to have a
39:53ground presence at the scene of action.
39:55This does two things. One, it adds a
39:58sense of urgency where you need it most
40:00and two, it shows your troops that
40:01you're willing to get your hands dirty
40:03and do real work. In the Andrew Roberts
40:06biography, it says, "Dauphin was
40:08impressed with his artillery commander
40:09reporting to Paris, I always found him
40:11at his post. When he needed rest, he lay
40:14on the ground wrapped in his cloak. He
40:16never left the batteries." Napoleon was
40:18always at the scene of action. I mean,
40:19he is literally sleeping on the ground
40:21right next to cannon. And it gets even
40:23crazier because this didn't stop when
40:25the battle started. The book continues.
40:27Napoleon showed considerable personal
40:29bravery in the batteries and redoubts of
40:31Toulon, at one point picking up a
40:33blood-soaked ramrod from an artilleryman
40:35who had been killed near him and helping
40:37to lead the and fire the cannon himself.
40:40The reason I'm talking about this as a
40:42work habit is because this is what
40:43really inspires the people around you to
40:45do great work. It's sharing the danger,
40:47sharing the pain, sharing everything
40:49that they go through with them. The next
40:51quote I'm about to share with you is one
40:52of my favorites from this entire book.
40:54It's like 800 pages, but it really shows
40:56what makes Napoleon
40:58like a really genuine virtuous person.
41:01I'll just read you the quote.
41:02"Napoleon's troops appreciated his
41:04courage and his ability to magnify their
41:06own. When all the gunners trying to
41:08establish a battery of cannon within a
41:10pistol shot of Fort Mulgrave were killed
41:12or wounded, Napoleon christened it
41:14Hommes Sans Peur, men without fear, and
41:16thereby continued to receive volunteers
41:18to man it. Nobody better understood the
41:20psychology of the ordinary soldier.
41:23Nobody Nobody understood better the
41:26psychology of the common soldier." That
41:28is great quote. Every CEO needs to
41:30understand the psychology of the
41:32everyday worker, the everyday the person
41:34at the bottom. There's this great quote
41:35from the book of Elon which literally
41:37perfectly describes this principle, and
41:39it talks about how Elon learned this
41:41lesson from Napoleon. Here's what Elon
41:43said. "When the team is being asked to
41:45work super hard, I have to be right
41:47there with them, and they have to see
41:48it. If I fall asleep in the middle of
41:50the factory floor at 4:00 in the morning
41:51and wake up 4 hours later, they see
41:53that. They are like, 'If the CEO is
41:55willing to take that level of pain, I
41:57can do it, too.' It was a world of hurt.
42:00I would wake up smelling like oil and
42:02iron filings. It was rough, but I was
42:04asking people to really go all out. I
42:06can't expect them to go all out if I'm
42:08not doing the same. This is the
42:10principle you never leave the scene of
42:13action. You are always at the
42:14bottleneck. You are always right at the
42:16problem that the company is struggling
42:18to solve because that is the role of the
42:20CEO. The founder really in a perfect
42:22world it should take on the most pain.
42:23They should take on the most amount of
42:25hardship. If you are outsourcing the
42:26hardship to the people below you, you
42:28will never be a great of history because
42:30the greats are the people who take on
42:32the most amount of pain and suffering.
42:34That is something that Napoleon and Elon
42:36understand very well. And so this is the
42:39principle. Never leave the scene of
42:41action. 12, be in the weeds. You need to
42:44be constantly in the weeds with your
42:46troops. Elon isn't working in some shiny
42:48office. He is constantly with the
42:50engineers. Steve Jobs, same thing. He
42:52was in the design lab with Jony Ive's.
42:54Even Rockefeller wasn't always in his
42:56office. He was constantly with the
42:58ledger writers going over the ledgers.
43:00Where this principle stems from is
43:02frontline leadership. You have to be in
43:04the weeds with your troops. My favorite
43:06example of this from the life of
43:07Napoleon comes from when he is an
43:09emperor. When you are a king or an
43:11emperor, you don't have to do any of the
43:13hard things. You don't have to do any
43:15difficult, you never have to get dirty.
43:17You could have the best treatment from
43:19the best people 24/7 for the rest of
43:21your life. But what I love about
43:23Napoleon is that even after he was an
43:25emperor, he was still going on campaign
43:27and even getting in the weeds himself.
43:29There's this beautiful story from the
43:31Andrew Roberts biography where he
43:32conquered this general named General
43:34Mack. And after he conquered them, one
43:36of the generals actually commented on
43:38Napoleon's appearance. Here's what the
43:39book says. The surrender took on the
43:42Michelsberg Plateau outside Ulm when an
43:44Austrian officer remarking on Napoleon's
43:46mud-spattered uniform said, "How
43:48fatiguing the campaign in such wet
43:50weather must have been." Napoleon said,
43:52"Your master wanted to remind me that I
43:55am a soldier. I hope you will own that
43:57the imperial purple has not caused me to
43:59forget my first trade." Your master
44:02wanted to remind me that I am a soldier
44:04is one of the coldest lines ever said in
44:06all of history. But what the story
44:08really shows is that even as an emperor,
44:10Napoleon was still leading from the
44:12front lines. I really love this story
44:14because it really shows the epitome of
44:16someone getting to the top and still
44:18choosing to lead from the bottom. It's
44:20the leader being the servant, the
44:22biblical principle. Success is so
44:24dangerous because it always goes to your
44:25head. You always think that you're
44:27better than you actually are and you
44:28forget your real trade. You forget the
44:30person that you were at the bottom.
44:32Napoleon understood this very well and
44:34he actually re flected on his younger
44:36years of when he was this person when
44:37he's older and he has this brilliant
44:39description. "Do you know how I
44:40managed?" Napoleon later recalled of
44:42this period of his life, "by never
44:44entering a cafe or going into society,
44:46by eating dry bread and brushing my own
44:49clothes so that they might last the
44:50longer. I lived like a bear in a little
44:53room with books for my only friends.
44:55These were the joys and debaucheries of
44:57my youth. Wherever you are, no matter at
44:59what position, it doesn't matter if
45:01you're in your mom's basement or if
45:03you're the CEO of one of the biggest
45:04companies in the world, you need to be
45:06in the weeds. Never forget that you come
45:09from dust and one day you will return to
45:11dust. That's a line from the Bible, from
45:13Ecclesiastes. This single line will keep
45:15you humble and it will stop you from
45:17making stupid mistakes, as it did for
45:19Napoleon, at least until he went into
45:21Russia. 13, remedy by extreme. This is a
45:24really interesting principle that I
45:26haven't seen talked about very much, but
45:27I was reading the memoirs from Saint
45:29Helena and it says this, "The emperor
45:31has no faith in medicine and never takes
45:33any. He adopted a peculiar mode of
45:35treatment for himself. Whenever he found
45:37himself unwell, his plan was to run into
45:39an extreme, the opposite of what
45:41happened to be his habit at the time.
45:43This he calls restoring the equilibrium
45:45of nature. If, for instance, he had been
45:47inactive for a length of time, he would
45:49suddenly ride about 60 mi or hunt for a
45:52whole day. If, on the contrary, he had
45:54been harassed by great fatigues, he
45:56would resign himself to a state of
45:57absolute rest for 24 hours. These
46:00unexpected shocks infallibly brought him
46:02an internal crisis and instantly
46:04produced the desired effect. This
46:06remedy, he observed, never failed. This
46:09one is one that I find so interesting
46:11because Napoleon was a man of extremes.
46:13He was extreme about everything that he
46:14did with his relationship with
46:16Josephine, with his work and his sleep.
46:20And this is another one with his
46:21remedies. Whenever something was wrong,
46:23he would remedy to the opposite. And I
46:25love the way he thinks about this too,
46:27about finding an equilibrium, about
46:29going too far in one direction and
46:30needing to treat rest in an extreme way
46:32similar to the way he treats work. When
46:34you look at a couple modern-day examples
46:36of someone who has achieved very high
46:38amounts of success, you can think of
46:39like Mr. Beast and Hermosi. And I found
46:42it very interesting that they both treat
46:44rest in the same way that Napoleon
46:46treated rest, where they treat their
46:47rest as extremely as they treat their
46:49work. For Mr. Beast, he talks about how
46:51he works every single minute of every
46:53single day until he literally cannot
46:55work anymore. Then, he'll take an
46:57afternoon off and he'll just binge in
46:58anime. After that, he gets back to work
47:00for every single minute of every single
47:02day, is what he says. Alex Hermosi has a
47:04very similar thing, where he works until
47:06he cannot work. And in his words, he
47:08said something like the output of gets
47:11like marginal diminishing returns or
47:12something. But once he reaches this
47:14point where his output begins to go
47:15down, he says, "The way I rest is simply
47:18by watching Netflix in a dark room until
47:20I'm good again to work." And so, these
47:22men find a sort of equilibrium in the
47:24universe, as Napoleon said, by using
47:26extreme tactics in rest in the same way
47:28that they use extreme tactics in their
47:30work. And so, I named this principle
47:32remedy by extreme. This not only shows
47:34that you have to be extreme about your
47:36work, that when you do something, you
47:37have to be, I guess, more extreme about
47:39it. Let's use a Hermosi quote, "If you
47:40want to be exceptional, then you have to
47:42be the exception. You have to be extreme
47:44about things." But it also shows that
47:45there is an equilibrium in the universe
47:47that you have to reach. And so, if you
47:49treat your work in an extreme way, you
47:50should also treat rest in an extreme
47:52way, as well. 14, allow for flexibility.
47:55One of the things that made Napoleon so
47:57great, especially among Prussian
47:58generals or Austrian generals or even
48:01Russian generals, was that he was able
48:03to be extremely flexible in the way he
48:05planned. Most of the people around him
48:07had these very rigid plans where they
48:09were so sure that what they thought was
48:11going to happen was going to happen.
48:12They had no flexibility, no room to
48:14maneuver. Napoleon was the complete
48:16opposite. He had an extremely flexible
48:18nature to everything. What he would do
48:20when he was planning a campaign was he
48:22would take these note cards and on the
48:23front of these note cards he would write
48:25down everything that he thought could
48:27happen. And on the back of every note
48:28card he would write down what he would
48:30do if that thing happens. This allowed
48:32for his plans to be extremely flexible
48:34because he had all these different plans
48:36for any possible scenario that could
48:38happen. And so because of this this
48:40allowed him to be way more flexible with
48:42his army and with his plans than his
48:43enemy. People often don't think about
48:45the retreat from Russia being
48:47masterfully done. Obviously, Napoleon
48:49shouldn't have extended his army all the
48:50way to the capital. But in his retreat
48:52he was able to be extremely flexible and
48:55he was able to minimize the casualties
48:57from enemy raids. Napoleon had listened
48:59to Oudinot's advice and change his plans
49:01accordingly, showing his customary
49:02flexibility on the field. He acted
49:05quickly, used deception to affect a
49:06brilliant faint which drew the Russians
49:08south and his whole army had crossed on
49:10two makeshift wooden trestle bridges in
49:12two days. It had been a miracle of
49:14deliverance, although so expensive that
49:16one of the common expressions for a
49:18disaster in French became "une
49:20Bérézina". Here's a key point. People
49:22are way too rigid in their work. They
49:24have this small in their head of what's
49:26supposed to happen, of what's going to
49:27happen, and when that model suddenly
49:29gets shifted by reality, they just
49:31completely lose it. They stop their
49:33work, they stop posting, they stop their
49:36business, they just stop. They freeze.
49:38What was so brilliant about the way
49:40Napoleon worked is he had a plan for
49:41everything. There was no good or bad,
49:43there was a plan for everything. And so
49:45no matter what happened Napoleon was
49:46still able to be flexible and to
49:48operate. And so if you want to work like
49:50Napoleon, I would use this note card
49:51technique that he uses. On the front,
49:53write everything that could possibly
49:54happen, good and bad, and then on the
49:56back, write how you would react to each
49:58scenario. That way, you will always be
50:00able to be flexible. And finally, number
50:0315, study the greats. This is my
50:05favorite principle. Obviously, this
50:07channel is called The Greats because we
50:10study the greats, but this is the best
50:11principle because it's the most
50:13effective for all of life. When Napoleon
50:15was in his 20s, he was a corporal, and
50:17there's this Ruth Cherb biography that
50:20kind of goes over this a little bit. It
50:21talks about how the people that he was
50:22under weren't that competent, and it
50:25describes it. It says, "The young
50:26battalion leader did not have the
50:28authority to override the decisions of
50:30his superiors, whose lack of competence
50:32deeply frustrated him." And so, because
50:33of this, the book continues, "He loved
50:35to find parallels between himself and
50:37ancient heroes. Bonaparte believed
50:39Hannibal was the greatest of all the
50:41great men of antiquity. Caesar, he
50:43thought, was a poet's hero, and Brutus,
50:45the Democrats' hero, but Hannibal was
50:47the greatest military captain in the
50:49ancient world." There was no one
50:51Napoleon could really imitate in the
50:53world and during his time. And so, he
50:55looked to history for people that he
50:57could admire, people that he could learn
50:59from. The book continues, "Bonaparte,
51:01like Caesar, is one of those dominating
51:03characters before whom all obstacles and
51:05all wills subside. Their inspiration
51:07seems so natural that in classical
51:09times, one would have considered them as
51:11living under the protection for a genie
51:13or a god." Key point, he was looking for
51:16mentors in historical context. Guys, I
51:18read over 200 biographies at this point.
51:21The one thing that I see in every single
51:23one of them is that the greats study the
51:25greats. Not a single biography that I've
51:27read doesn't mention this. Napoleon
51:29studied Caesar, Caesar studied Hannibal,
51:31Hannibal studied Alexander, Alexander
51:34studied Achilles. The most important
51:36thing that Napoleon did in his life was
51:39read about the greats of history. He
51:41found his golden shadow, and he was able
51:43to emulate them and walk in their
51:45footsteps. If you take one thing from
51:47this video, if you take one thing from
51:48this channel even, that you can go and
51:50apply in your own life, take this. Study
51:53the greats of history. Find your golden
51:55shadow, walk in their footsteps, embody
51:58their ethos, and go conquer the world.
52:01And if you feel like Napoleon is that
52:02person for you, I am actually starting a
52:04book club where we will read one or two
52:06biographies every month and meet
52:08by-weekly to discuss them. We're
52:10starting with Emil Ludwig's Napoleon
52:12biography, who my friend said is the
52:14greatest biography he's ever read. He's
52:16read like 70 biographies, so I'm
52:18actually super excited to get dive into
52:20this one. We are starting this book on
52:21October 1st and our first meeting will
52:23be mid-October. So, if you felt inspired
52:25by Napoleon, definitely join this club.
52:27It is only for the greats of the future
52:29and it's going to be
52:31uh extremely awesome. So, yeah, consider
52:33joining the greats book club. That is
52:34all I have. See you.

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of How A True Workaholic Works by Nic Munoz, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 11,051 words across 1,605 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.