0:00 This is Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of France, author of the Napoleonic Code, and one of the most brilliant military generals in history. Napoleon did more before the age of 35 than almost anyone has ever done in a lifetime. He was making battlefield decisions at 3:00 in the morning, constantly running on almost no sleep, and continually outworking everyone around him. But, how was he able to do this? Well, Napoleon specifically designed his life to maximize things like speed, clarity, and control. And thanks to this 1,000-page biography by Andrew Roberts and I have a pretty good idea on the habits that he used to make this possible. This book is filled with the letters Napoleon wrote, his military maxims, accounts from people closest to him, and detailed writings of his campaigns. So, after reading it, I've condensed this book down into 13 habits
0:46 split into three sections that define Napoleon. And it all starts with his daily habits. One, compartmentalization. Andrew Roberts explained it best when he said, "Napoleon was capable of compartmentalizing his life so that one set of concerns never spilled over into another. He could go from planning a military invasion to writing legal documents in the same hour without losing focus." Compartmentalization is one of the skills that allowed Napoleon to do so much in his life because he was able to switch from task to task without losing any momentum and without carrying any baggage from the previous task. Here's how Napoleon himself thought of it. "Different subjects and different affairs are arranged in my head as in a cupboard. When I wish to interrupt a one train of thought, I shut that drawer and open another. Do I wish to sleep? I simply close all the drawers and there I am, asleep." You can think of your mind like a cupboard and every drawer is a
1:33 different section of your life. So, let's say you're having an argument with your wife and you're having a little bit of trouble focusing on work. Using this cupboard analogy, you can close the drawer from your home life and open the drawer for your work life and not let these different areas of your life seep into each other. I will say though that this method is more of a lifestyle. The more that you practice this in your life than the easier it's going to be to shut and open drawers. To practice this in your life, you can try things like this. The next time you switch from school to work or emails to writing, take a pause, shut everything from the previous task down, reset your posture, and treat the next thing like a brand new battlefield. Mental drag is invisible, but it kills momentum, and Napoleon trained his mind to leave it behind. Two, strategic rest. One of the craziest things I found in the Andrew Roberts biography was that Napoleon's sleep schedule was insane.
2:18 Napoleon didn't sleep the same way all the time. During peacetime, he got 6 to 7 hours a night, but during war, it usually dropped down to three or four, sometimes less and not a lot at the same time. This wasn't because he was trying to prove something or anything, but it was because he adjusted his rest to what the moment required. He would grab these short naps in between battles, which would allow him to be giving orders constantly. For Napoleon, it was all about urgency, and so he chose to rest based on how urgent the moment was. There's actually a scene from the Andrew Roberts biography that describes this kind of well. Napoleon would often sleep for just an hour or two a night, then take short naps in the day, sometimes while fully clothed, lying on a table or sitting upright in his carriage, so he could continue working without delay. And you have a very similar scene in 1806. Right before the Battle of Jena, Napoleon had barely slept for 2 days. His generals urged him to rest, but instead, he took a 15-minute power nap
3:04 in his tent, woke up, walked outside, and dictated the entire next phase of the campaign. That same day, he crushed the Prussian army. And this is actually something that's very common with a lot of successful people. It's usually in the sprints when the biggest accomplishments in history have happened. Elon Musk sleeping on factory floors, the Wright brothers napping in between test flights, Edison and his employees crashing under tables while building the light bulb. And while coming to this conclusion, I started to ask myself, "Why? Why does this happen?" And so I realized that there's a common trend that you see with every great person right before they achieved whatever they achieved. And that trend is that you see a sort of sprint. It's an obsessive sprint that completely consumes an individual that allows them to take on a task. The sprint phase can usually last a week or a couple of weeks or a couple of months or even a couple
3:50 of years for some people, but it's where you're so obsessed with something where you just forget to sleep because you're so focused on the task ahead of you. For Napoleon, this tended to be during battles or during campaigns where he really needed to be working just all the time. And so he adjusted his sleep based on his work, not his work based on his ideal sleep. And it's because during these sprints, it's not about how much you sleep, but about how you use the amount of sleep that you get. For Napoleon, energy wasn't just a resource, but it was a weapon and he refused to waste it. Three, minutia. It's kind of interesting that I mentioned Elon Musk in the previous section because Elon Musk is in a lot of ways like a modern-day Napoleon. One of the ways that they're similar is that they're both extremely confident about the minutia of their companies or Napoleon's case in army. Minutia is the small precise or trivial details of something.
4:35 So pretty much it's the little things, the little details of the company that make up the whole. There are many stories from Tesla from lower-level employees where Elon Musk would just show up and start questioning them about all their tasks. Many of them even saying that he knew the information better than they did. And there are actually very similar accounts from the soldiers in Napoleon's army. Some of the things Napoleon focused on were supply chain issues, troop positions, and uniform design. He knew his army in every tiny detail in it. So much so that he once said, "The slightest circumstance decides the issue of the battle. Therefore, a commander must pay attention to the details." And one of the main benefits of this is that his staff noticed. They learned very quickly that if they weren't on top of things, then Napoleon would be on top of them. There was a moment during the 1805 Ulm Campaign where he paused the march not because of enemy movement, but because he noticed a missing shipment of boots.
5:22 There were thousands of men ready to go hundreds of miles from home and Napoleon was noticing footwear missing. That shipment arrived two days later and the next morning they fought the decisive battle. Now of course the boots weren't the main reason that they won, but the point I'm trying to make is that it's the small details that make up the large outcomes. And so if you want a very good large outcome, then you have to get into the minutia, get into the small things of your company. And this isn't just true in war and business. This is true in every part of life. Whether you're editing a video, launching a product, or studying for an exam, it's usually not the big idea that gives you the advantage. It's the small details that others miss. Four, relentless reading. Read and reread the campaigns of Alexander Hannibal Caesar Gustavus Turenne, Eugene, and Frederick. This is the only way you become a great general.
6:08 Napoleon. Like many great people, Napoleon was a relentless reader. He even had a custom-built traveling library so that he could take the small library of books with him on campaigns. But a lot of great people in the world read. The thing that set Napoleon apart was how he read. Napoleon read with intentionality. Andrew Roberts writes, "He was exceptionally well read in history, especially military history, and constantly sought to apply lessons from past campaigns to present circumstances." While a lot of people read a lot, it's usually the people that actually apply the principles that they read to the real world that actually succeed. Before his Egyptian campaign, Napoleon studied the Quran, accounts of Alexander's Egypt campaigns, and books on the region's geography and culture. Before Russia, he read books on Charles VII's invasion, topographical maps of Lithuania, and reports on Russia's
6:53 army's structure. He wasn't reading history with the intent of just reading history. Although I'm sure he was enjoying it, he was reading it with the intention of applying the tips that he got from his readings. Alex Hormozi actually has this great quote on this which goes, "Rather than picking up your next book, take action on your last book." This quote perfectly summarizes the way Napoleon read because Napoleon knew that learning is about changing your behavior, reading with the intent of taking action. And you can apply this in your own life, too. Think about what your goals are, and then think about what you're reading right now. And then you can ask yourself the question about whether you're reading tactically or not. Okay, so now that we've gone over some of Napoleon's daily habits, it's time to go over how he actually moved. Because the second part of Napoleon's habits is how he applied them on the battlefield. Five, fast decisions. Napoleon was known for making fast decisions, and one of the clearest
7:39 examples of this was during the Ulm campaign. Take a look at this map from one of Napoleon's best successes. General Mack expected Napoleon to take the slow route through the Black Forest, but Napoleon quickly decided to split up his forces into small cores and surround him from multiple angles. This single fast decision forced a surrender without even a big battle. And even Napoleon once said, "Nothing is more difficult and therefore more precious than to be able to decide." And this mindset shaped everything about what he did, especially how he strategized. Napoleon designed a system called the core system, where the army is split into small cores that could operate on their own. These cores were small, agile units consisting of some artillery, infantry, and cavalry. And having the system in place allowed for a faster communication and faster decisions. And before we move on, I just
8:24 got to emphasize how brilliant the core system was. It was so brilliant that pretty much the entire world adopted the system after the Napoleonic Wars. One of the reasons why Napoleon was so adamant about making fast decisions is because of something called a feedback loop. A feedback loop is a system where your decisions information that affect your next decisions. So, in simple terms, you do something, you see what happens, and you use that result to adjust your next move. It's a cycle of action, response, adjustment, and then new action. And every time the loop runs, you become more effective. Six, tight communication. There was a point in Napoleon's career where he was commanding 200,000 men across hundreds of miles, literally communicating by writing letters. So, of course, key communication is going to be a key concept here. The thing about Napoleon's orders was that they were always
9:09 extremely clear, actionable, and concise. There was very little fluff in these orders. It was just what needed to happen, by who it needed to happen by, and when it needed to happen. At one event during the Prussian campaign, one of his generals misread a very vague report, which caused hours of delay. And this delay almost cost him the key position. It turns out that it was just a mistranslation error by one of his scribes. So, after that, Napoleon started rewriting many of the dispatches himself. Some of them only three three long, but they were always very exact. Winston Churchill has a saying that goes, "It is slothful not to compress your thoughts." And Napoleon thought the exact same way. Napoleon always started his orders with what needed to happen, then by who it needed to happen by, and then when or where it needed to happen. Let's call this a sort of 111 method. One action, one person, and one time or
9:55 place. There are a lot of people that think that the longer something is, the more detailed it is, but you can sort of think of it more like this. If you were able to make a 1-hour video that could be edited down to 30 minutes, you just stole half an hour of someone's time. So, it might be worth it to have the shorter one that's more concise and straight to the point, because you get across the same thing that you could have said in half an hour rather than an hour. It is slothful not to compress your thoughts, and this is something that will pay off a lot in real life. Seven, concentration of force. Speaking of real life, this is a concept that sounds very simple, but when you actually apply it, it's very, very useful in real life. It's called the strategy of the central position. You see, during this time of history, most people would spread their army out as wide as possible, and this was in order to cover the most ground, but Napoleon would actually concentrate all his forces together with a focus on one
10:41 point of the enemy's army. During the Italian campaign in 1796, there was a point he was facing two Austrian armies moving in from two different directions. He was very badly outnumbered, but it didn't even matter. What Napoleon did is charge his army right in the center. Then he turned his entire army one way and crushed the first group at Montenotte, then turned around again and beat the second group at Millesimo. The reason he won was because he was able to concentrate all his force on half of the army, and then turn around and concentrate all of the force on the other side of the army. When you concentrate all of your force, then the impact multiplies. This is a concept that everyone should apply in their lives. When you're moving in 10 different directions, it's hard to make progress with anything, but if you cut down to one or two things that you can put all your attention towards, then you can conquer that thing and then turn around and conquer something else as
11:27 well. Eight, flanking maneuvers. Now, this wasn't Napoleon's default strategy, but when he did use it, he used it big time. The clearest example of this is probably the Battle of Austerlitz. During this battle, Napoleon set a trap. He made his right flank look weak on purpose, and the enemy fell for it. They overextended, and while they hit the right flank, Napoleon led his main force from the side and drove right through the center line. The battle was over in just hours. This is one of the most famous battles in history, so much so that Andrew Roberts called Austerlitz a masterpiece of tactical deception and execution, showcasing Napoleon's unparalleled ability to manipulate enemy movements and exploit terrain to his advantage. The entire trap was built on a sort of flanking maneuver, a sort of misdirection. While the enemy's entire army was focused on one direction, Napoleon hit them from the other. And
12:12 this is what a flanking maneuver is. You can think of like a UFC fighter being overextended on a job, only to get clocked with a right hook. Flanking is about approaching a problem from an angle that sort of disrupts the pattern. And just like all of the other things and all the other military strategies, you can of course apply this in your life. Think about making content. Most people try to grow by doing what everyone else is doing and copying trends and whatnot. They're attacking straight through the front, and sometimes that works, but it might be worth it to try a different angle once in a while. A niche that no one is looking at, or framing an idea from a unique angle. That's what flanking is. It's about facing a problem from a unique angle rather than just facing it head-on. Nine, calculated risk-taking. So, Napoleon wasn't much of a gambler, but he did have to take risks sometimes. This means that when he did take these risks, he bet extremely heavy on them,
12:59 and he made sure that they were extremely calculated and extremely prepared. Crossing the Alps was a great example of this. This was an extremely risky maneuver, but Napoleon planned it to the hour. He arranged for artillery to be taken apart. He staggered his army into waves so that the supply line could keep up, and he communicated all of these instructions very clear. It was a very big risk, but because he planned it so well, it actually worked, and he was able to surprise the Austrian army who never expected it. You can think of it like the stunt in Mission Impossible. To the audience, it looks insane. He's riding a bike off of a cliff, but behind the scenes, everything is planned down to the speed of the bike, down to the angle of the ramp, everything about this. It's actually so planned that the actor Tom Cruise performed the stunt six times with nothing gone wrong. Calculated risk-taking is also very
13:45 similar to the Warren Buffett philosophy at Berkshire Hathaway. And Warren Buffett even said, "The wise ones bet heavily when the world offers them that opportunity. They bet big when they have the odds, and the rest of the time, they don't. It's just that simple." This is actually the main philosophy that Berkshire used to pretty much dominate the stock market. 10, control the propaganda machine. So, this one largely goes unnoticed in Napoleon's life because it wasn't really a military tactic, but I put it in this section because I don't think he could have done anything that he did, leaving Paris for months at a time without it. Right after battles, Napoleon would send these bulletins back to France, letting people know what had happened in his campaigns. But, Napoleon's bulletins were a lot different than the normal bulletins that people would send back home in that day. Instead of writing a list of events, he wrote exactly what he wanted the public
14:31 to hear. I mean, literally in the book, for every battle that he fought, he has these numbers and these reports that he writes on how much enemies they captured and how much artillery they used and how much of his own troops were injured. And literally every time this happened in the book, the book would compare the real numbers to Napoleon's numbers, and well, let's just say they were always a bit exaggerated. But, even though his numbers were exaggerated, for the public, the effect worked. The public was happy that they won by this large amount. About these bulletins, Andrew Roberts writes, "Napoleon's bulletins were often exaggerated and theatrical, but they succeeded in turning setbacks into stories of resilience and victories into moments of national pride. He understood the value of narrative control long before it became a common practice." The Battle of Marengo was a fairly close one, but Napoleon framed it
15:16 as a strategic triumph, and most of the people in France had no idea how it close it actually was. The point is that Napoleon stayed on top of the propaganda and because he stayed on top of it, his enemies feared him and the masses loved him. This is something that you can use too in a smaller way. If you're working on something, don't let that thing go unnoticed. Tell the story the way you want to tell it based on the way you want to be perceived because someone is always shaping a story and if that person is not you, then you might end up with a story that might not be the one you want. All right, so now that we talked about his daily habits and some of his military strategies, there's one more section that we have to touch on and that's his inner command because none of the previous stuff would have worked if he hadn't had this inner control of himself as well. This last section is filled with the habits that made people actually want to follow him.
16:02 So, number 11, emotional control. Napoleon didn't just command armies, but he also had extreme control over himself. This means showing insane calmness in areas where you should be extremely stressed. About this, Andrew Roberts writes, "He showed a remarkable ability to control his emotions, especially anger, which he believed clouded judgment. He understood that the man who remains calm under pressure is the one who can think most clearly." And this was sort of a pattern with Napoleon. When things went wrong, he wouldn't just explode. He would sort of take a pause, intake the information and only then continue to respond. During the Egypt campaign, Napoleon was given news that Josephine was cheating on him and this was very bad and it got even worse when the British newspapers got a hold of the news. This of course is a great example because Napoleon used his drawer system to control his emotions
16:48 over the situation. And it's because of this that Napoleon was still able to make good decisions in Egypt while his personal life was in a crisis. Honestly, this is a bit of a simple concept, so I'm going to just leave it at that, but you'd be surprised how many people in the world can't control their emotions and if you are able to control your emotions, then it's going to be something that serves you very well, especially when you get into arguments with people. 12, lead by example. He had the ability to inspire love in his men not merely because of his astonishing victories, but also because he shared their dangers, their food, their clothing, their bivouacs, and often their hardships. They knew he was there with them in every sense of the word. Napoleon didn't lead from a palace, he led straight from the front. During the Italian campaign, one of his officers wrote, "Bonaparte sleeps among us. He walks with us. He looks us in the eye."
17:34 If there's one thing that you don't want to do to the people around you, it's make them feel inferior. You actually want to do the opposite. You want to make the people around you feel big. You want to make them feel great, like they're a part of something bigger than themselves, like their life has meaning. Here's how Andrew Roberts puts it, "Napoleon taught ordinary people that they could make history, and he convinced his followers they were taking part in an adventure, a pageant, an experiment, an epic whose splendor would draw the attention of posterity for centuries to come." It was this, it was really this that made his soldiers want to fight so hard. It's a belief in a cause, something bigger than themselves. And of course, no one is going to believe in a cause if the person at the top of that cause is a hypocrite. That's the principle. Never ask someone to do something you do yourself. I mean, there were nights Napoleon would sleep on the ground next to cannons. This is how he
18:19 was able to lead in such an extraordinary way. His soldiers even had a nickname for him. They called him Le Petit Caporal, which was sort of like a friendly nickname because they thought of him as just one of them, one of the soldiers, one of the guys. And this was something that largely inspired his troops. When he rode around on his horse, through battlefields, through bullet fire, through all of it. This is the best type of leader that there is. And number 13, belief in destiny. This is probably the most important one, and no one talks about it. There's actually a phrase that goes, "There are no atheists in foxholes." And it's used to suggest that when your life isn't in your control, you're sort of forced to believe in a god or a destiny or a fate of some sorts. And there are these certain moments in history where destiny seems to be on the side of the victorious, on the side of these great
19:05 people. You can think of George Washington having bullets fly past him during the French and Indian War, or Winston Churchill being captured by enemies during the Boer War and escaping. Napoleon at one point was left stranded in Egypt because the British came and blew up all their boats. And one of his soldiers came and asked him if destiny had forsaken him. And here's how Andrew Roberts describes his response. "She has not abandoned us yet," he told the directory. "She has served us during this entire operation beyond anything she has ever done." He even told Kleber that the disaster might be beneficial as the British were now forcing him to consider marching on to India. The similarity behind all of these events is that these extraordinary people believed that something higher was guiding them, whether it was a god or a fate or destiny. They believed that something was guiding them through the chaos. And it's not an accident that
19:51 these were the people that became victorious, either. When you believe that something beyond your control is taking care of you, you sort of let go of the things that aren't in your control because you know that something else is taking care of it. And so you begin to focus on the things that are in your control. Opportunities spring up out of nowhere simply because you're looking for them. And when you look throughout history, it's these people who can remain relentlessly optimistic because it gives you something to hope for even when there might seem like there's none. If you enjoyed this video, if you got something applicable from it, I hope you go and apply it in your own life. And you might like this other video where I teach you how to think like Albert Einstein. So, anyway, I will see you over there. See you.
