#337 Napoleon's Maxims and Strategy｜Founders

Napoleon fought more battles than Alexander, Hannibal, and Julius Caesar combined.

He is, beyond any doubt, the greatest of European soldiers.

He never wrote his theories or principles on the conduct of war, although he often expressed

the intention of doing so, and remarked that everyone would be surprised at how simple

they were.

I want to interrupt this real quick, because when I read that part, everybody would be

surprised at how simple they were.

I thought about one of my favorite quotes I've ever read.

And it says, Anavis is easily spotted because they do too much.

Too many ingredients, too many movements, too much explanation.

A master uses the fewest motions required to fulfill their intention back to this book.

It remained for Napoleon alone, among the great generals of his time, to seize all these

possibilities and develop from them a calculated system of strategy and a system of tactics

calculated with equal brilliance.

No other general of his time realized these possibilities until forced to learn by combating

Napoleon.

He astounded his opponents by the crushing rapidity of his battle, speed, and the importance

of speed might be the thing that he repeats the most in these maxims.

He astounded his opponents by the crushing rapidity of his battles.

His strategic system was based on marching rapidly and secretly past the enemy's flank

to get on the hostile line of communications.

His force his opponents to turn and fight at a disadvantage.

The way you and I have talked about that some past is that you want to compete on your

terms.

You only want to play games where you have the edge.

His battles were the result of his strategic movements and were carefully calculated.

The art of strategy as developed by writers for the past century has its foundations in

his operations.

So in other words, he influenced the generals that came after him, just like he was influenced

by the generals that came before him.

Klausowitz's great book on war, I have this book, I just haven't read it or made a

podcast on it yet.

Klausowitz's great book on war was the outgrowth of Napoleonic studies.

And so the first book published on Napoleon's Maximum was published all the way back in 1827.

Stonewall Jackson during the Civil War carried these Maximums in his Habersack throughout

his campaign.

This little volume, Jackson's biographer stated, contains a fairly complete exposition

in Napoleon's own words of the grand principles of war.

And in the introduction of that book that he was carried around by Stonewall Jackson,

it says the art of war is susceptible of being considered under two titles, the one which

rests entirely on the knowledge and genius of the commander.

So that line, the commander, the general, the commander, chiefs can repeat it over and

over again by Napoleon for the purposes of UNI.

It'd be the leader of the company, the founder of the CEO, the other on matters of detail.

The first two titles, one, rests entirely on the knowledge, the talent, the genius of

the person, the founder of the CEO.

The other on matters matters of detail.

The first is the same for all time, for all peoples, whatever the arms with which they

fight.

From this, it follows that the same principles have directed the great captains of all

centuries.

So when Napoleon realized when he's studying the history of war, it's something you and

I have realized setting the history of business.

It's like, oh, these people didn't know each other.

They worked in different industries.

They lived in different parts of the world and they were alive at different times.

How did they all arrive at similar conclusions?

That should tell you and I, hey, there's some principles here that are always valuable.

They are timeless.

They never go out of style.

The matters of detail, on the other hand, are subject to the influence of time, to the

spirit of the people and the character of the armaments.

The continuing interest and application of most of these maxims indicates that the original

compiler succeeded in selecting Napoleon's most pertinent aphorisms of permanent value

and another way to describe what they're saying there is that these are ideas that have

lasted for centuries.

Okay, so that is an introduction to one of the two books that I'm going to talk to you

about today.

That book is called Roots of Strategy, the five greatest military classics of all time

in one volume.

And so it's a book containing the Art of War by Sun Zhu, written in 500 BC.

The military institutions of the Romans, there's no way in pronouncing anybody's name.

You already know this correct.

There's no way I can pronounce them correctly.

The military institutions of the Romans by vegetias, who knows, that was written in 390

AD.

Then my reveries upon the Art of War written by Marshall Maurice Staysauks in 1732.

The institution, instruction of Frederick the Great for his generals written in 1747.

And then the one we're going to focus on today, which is the military maxims of Napoleon.

So that is Roots of Strategy.

That is book number one.

I'm going to go through this one first.

The second one and how I got this idea for this, to do this podcast is because I was given

this lovely book as a gift called Napoleon and Modern War.

And it's Napoleon's Maxim's first published in 1943.

The book I'm holding in my hand and the one I'll get to after I go through Roots of Strategy,

I have the 1949 edition.

And what's going to be interesting is I read these books at different times.

So maybe the most impactful, maybe the most important book that I read last year was this

book called The Mind of Napoleon.

It's episode 302 of Founders.

If you have not listened to it, I would listen to it right after this.

And if you've already listened to it, I would listen to it again.

That book is almost impossible to find.

After that podcast came out, I heard from people that spent upwards, anywhere from 500

to $2000 by buying that book.

Interesting to note, especially in the times that we're living in now.

Sam Altman, the founder of the creator of OpenAI and Chech EPT, he said when that was

the mind of Napoleon was the most important book that he read in the year 2019 if I'm

not mistaken.

Shortly after reading that book, I read Roots of Strategy, went through and did what I

normally do.

I read the book, highlight it, and just write notes to myself on what this means to me

or things that came to my mind.

So that is what I'm going to go, I'm going to read off of right now.

And then the last few days I read Napoleon and the Modern War.

So some of these maxims are going to be repeated, but my interpretation or what came to mind

are different.

And this is why I've told you in the past, like I love rereading books because the words

on the page don't change what you do.

And you know, it can even be different person next week or your interpretation can be

different, you know, in this case, it was several months spread in between the two readings.

Okay, so I'm going to go right into Napoleon's own words.

So he says, a plan of campaign should anticipate everything which which the enemy can do,

and contain within itself the means of thwarting him, of thwarting your enemy.

Plans of campaign may be infinitely modified according to the circumstances, the genius

of the commander, the genius of the founder, the quality of the troops, and the topography

of the theater of war.

And so the note I left myself when I read this, it has to do with what you and I usually

study, the quality of the business is based on the quality of the founder, the talent

that founders able to recruit to their mission and the market that they target.

At the commencement of a campaign, the question whether to advance or not requires careful

deliberation, but when you have once undertaken the offensive, it should be maintained to

the last extremity.

This is something that he says in, he repeats over and over again, it says in slightly different

ways, but plan, think before you act, but once you act, I love that idea, it should be

maintained to the last extremity, burn the boats.

Think before you act and then burn the boats.

A general should say to himself, I love this part, a general should say to himself many

times a day.

The hostile army where to make its appearance in front, in my front or on my right or on

my left, what should I do?

And if he's embarrassed, his arrangements are bad.

There is something wrong and he must rectify his mistake.

No one should be able to take you to surprise and your business should be able to survive

in all kinds of different macroeconomic climates.

I mean, now this is even rereading this after studying Sam Inzel.

If you think about it, Sam Inzel didn't do this.

He didn't build a business, even though he was genius and gifted person in successful

for 53 years, but he didn't build a business that could withstand the Great Depression.

In other words, he was allowed, he allowed something to take him by surprise and as a

result, he died broke.

And so another thing that Napoleon repeats a lot is the importance of morale, of a general

hyping up, he's not going to use those words, but like hyping up his troops.

I'm going to skip over the maximum, but I love the note that I left myself here.

No one should believe more in your business than you do.

If this is not the case, you are in the wrong business.

A well-established maximum of war is to not do anything, which your enemy wishes.

I think about this fantastic quote from Ed Thorpe episode 222, only play games where you

have an edge.

He says at the end of his autobiography, after 50 years of managing money and 50 years

of being an investor and entrepreneur, he says you should only play games where you have

an edge.

Napoleon says you should therefore avoid a field of battle, which your enemy has studied.

You should still be still more careful to avoid one, which he has fortified and where

and one where he has entrenched himself.

Again, you have no edge in this game.

Do not play here.

Find another game or better yet create your own.

And then this is an interesting use of language.

Kind of difficult to understand, but if you think about what he's saying here, the natural

positions which you're commonly met with cannot secure an army against superiority of a more

numerous one without the aid of art.

So a small team, right?

You don't want to go up against an army that has bigger numbers.

And if you do, you can't do so without the aid of art.

The way I think about what he's saying here is that smaller teams, smaller companies

must be more clever and resourceful than larger ones.

They just have to.

You have to outthink them.

That line of outthinking them.

One of the books, I think, was the everything story.

I read on Jeff Bezos.

And at the time, Zappos is just like selling shoes online, but they're making a lot of

progress against them.

This is before Amazon buys them.

And there's a great story in the book about this meeting that they're having inside

of Amazon because Bezos realized that when they started making, like after all the, like

the terrorist attacks, they started making Americans take off their shoes and everything

and put them at the airport, that Zappos realized, oh, you're taking off your shoes, you're

putting them in this, this like, you know, plastic bin.

Can we see if we can buy advertising on that plastic bin?

And Bezos saw that.

I thought it was a great idea.

And he was like, pretty pissed off about it.

He's like, they're outthinking us.

And so Napoleon is, you need the aid of art.

When you occupy a position which the enemy threatens to surround, you should collect your

forces quickly and menace him with an offensive movement.

Default offense is the way I think about a lot of what Napoleon writes about.

I love this quote, Nolan Bush knows the founder of Atari and the Steve Jobs mentor hired

like a 19 year old Steve Jobs.

And he says in one of his books that Steve Jobs only had one speed go.

And I think you could think the same way about Napoleon.

A general should be enterprising, strike vigorously and maneuver against the flanks of his

adversary.

And if he does, victory is his.

This is something I talked about in episode three or two on the mind of Napoleon.

He says, when you have it in contemplation to give battle, it is a general rule to collect

all of your strength and leave none unemployed.

One battalion sometimes decides the issue of the day.

If you study, if you read Robert Carrow's books on Lyndon Johnson, I think Lyndon Johnson's

maximum that is excellent.

My favorite maximum that he has, one of my favorite maximums all time is that if you do everything

you will win.

Napoleon did the exact same things like listen, we're not leaving things when anything

to chance.

We're not having resources that we don't use.

Leave none unemployed.

One battalion can sometimes decide the issue of the day if you do everything you will

win.

When you intend to engage in a decisive battle, avail yourself of all the chances of success.

Again, that is just another way of saying, if you do everything you will win.

In the mind of Napoleon, he even expounds on this.

I don't think it's in this book or the other maximum book I'm going to read after this.

But he says this is a direct quote from Napoleon, all great events hang by a single thread.

The clever man takes advantage of everything.

Neglects nothing that may give him some added opportunity.

The less clever man by neglecting one thing sometimes misses everything.

That is so important I need to repeat that.

All great events hang by a single thread.

The clever man takes advantage of everything.

Neglects nothing that may give him some added opportunity.

The less clever man by neglecting one thing sometimes misses everything.

Anytime you read examples of what Napoleon had said, he spends like, I'm not even going

to read this to you because he's talking about some campaign from 1645.

But he spends a lot of time talking about the strategy of crossing rivers.

And he's talking about well, in 1645 they did this.

And in 1715 they did this.

In 300 AD they did this.

The main point here is obviously should be obviously UNIs.

The founders should have deep historical knowledge of past founders so that they can then use

those lessons as leverage in their career because it's exactly what Napoleon did.

I think I've talked to you about this on every single episode I've done on Napoleon.

I will leave them all linked and listed below in case you want to go back and listen

to all of them.

But the reason I keep doing episodes on Napoleon and Winston Churchill is because when you

go back and read biographies of great founders, they talk about pre-World War II founders,

all talk about being inspired by Napoleon.

Post-World War II founders also talk about being inspired by Napoleon, but then they also

talk about being inspired by Napoleon Churchill.

And then you read Churchill's words and he talks a lot about Napoleon.

In fact, I have another book to my right.

It is called The Maximum Reflections of the Honorable Winston S. Churchill, also published

in 1947.

And he mentions Napoleon multiple times in that book.

And then he talks a little bit about how to get an advantage and encourage your troops.

Enthusiasm.

Love of country and the desire of contributing to the national glory may also animate young

troops with advantage, never underestimate enthusiasm.

The first quality of a soldier is constancy in enduring fatigue and hardship.

That's a combination of two of my favorite maxims.

By endurance we conquer, from Shackleton, an excellence is the capacity to take pain

by the founder of four seasons.

The first quality of a soldier is constancy in enduring fatigue and hardship.

Now this is fascinating because I read this, you know, a couple months ago, then I read

it, reread it on a different book this week and I came up with the same exact idea.

Everything seems to relate back to Game of Thrones.

And so he says nothing is more important and he repeats this in Napoleon repeats the

same idea in different ways.

Nothing is more important in war than the unity in command.

You should have but one army acting on one line and led by one commander.

And so I will leave a link and you can watch this video on YouTube, but there is a character

in Game of Thrones called Robert Barathe and he's the king at the time at the very beginning

of the series, right?

And he gives a speech where he thinks they're at a disadvantage and potentially weak and

can be overthrown by a new army.

And it's the five verse one speech in Game of Thrones.

And so he's talking to his queen Cersei, his wife.

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the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the words were slightly different. I said, hey, why is we've LBJ if you do everything you will win? This time I read it, and I just, I have a posted note on my desk. I have two things written to myself on my desk. Do one thing relentlessly. And the second one is a posted note that asks me what assets do I have that I'm not using. And I think that's, that's very similar to what he's very similar to what Napoleon saying when a commander tends to give battle, he should collect all his forces. And over looked not

a battalion sometimes decides the day of battalion is just an asset that a commander has in battle. It is no harm to be too strong. It may be fatal to be too weak. If you are opposed by a great captain, so if you're going up against a very talented person, give yourself all the chances of success. Minds me of Rockefeller on episode 324. An enter, he wrote an enter price is like a battlefield. And the purpose of strategic goals is to create the most beneficial state

for oneself. Right? He says, the purpose of your goals is to create the most beneficial state for oneself. Napoleon says give yourself all the chances of success. It's the same idea. Fortresses are useful. They are an excellent means by which to retard and bearish weaken and annoy a victorious enemy. So he's using fortresses we would use moats from the book a few lessons from Warren Buffett.

Moats a metaphor for the superiority is a business possesses that make life difficult for their competitors. Fortresses make life difficult for an invading army now. Napoleon also says fortresses are not necessarily permanent. Warren Buffett says business history is filled with Roman candles.

Companies whose moats proved illusory and were soon crossed. Napoleon notices the same thing in battle. Fortresses are not necessarily permanent. Napoleon says nothing is absolute in war. Peter Teal says there is no formula for success.

The paradox of teaching entrepreneurship is that such a formula cannot exist because every innovation is new and unique and no authority can prescribe in concrete terms how to be innovative. This is why I've gone to another podcast and say it's like I have you reading biographies like watching game tape on somebody's life right same way that basketball player would watch game tape doesn't meet like you're learning the tendencies of your competitors maybe learning some good ideas that you could also copy.

But it doesn't mean you're going to be presented with those same opportunities to act on the information in an actual game you just have to have it in the back of your mind for one day might nothing is absolute in war. Napoleon made of only used 20% 30% 5% who knows of what he actually studied but he still found value in that setting.

It is your duty to follow up the victory and prevent the beaten enemy from rallying you know the weird idea had when I read that buying up your competitors that you're out performing this came top of mind because I just read Sam in soul's biography.

It's in Rockefeller's biography it's in Henry so Sam isle did this Rockefeller did this Henry Clay fricked at this why are you by you're already beating them why you buying up an in Rockefeller and Sam in sales case they would pay more than the assets are actually worth.

And they talked about that there's a line that Sam has where it's like listen money can't buy friends but it can prevent people coming becoming your enemies but there's a strategic like commercial application of this which is it prevents them from regaining strength and threatening your position in the future.

Napoleon's telling it's your duty you're winning prevent the beat an enemy from rallying you go to sleep on a win you'll wake up with a loss.

Napoleon also talks about the dangers of excessive luxury of things being too easy for everybody.

And so the description of this is Napoleon seems to have in mind the dangers of having troops concentrated in your home area where they might be exposed to a loss of discipline to the pleasures of living among friendly people he preferred to have his troops far from such locations where a harder life would better prepare them for the vicitutes of war.

A lot of money and success will make your company sloppy and soft we see this over and ever again just part of human nature and when that happens a younger hunger your competitor will soon overtake you you have to avoid excessive luxury.

There's a great illustration of this point in David Olgove's autobiography Confessions of an advertising man which I think he wrote like 1965 and really when I read this the first time I was like oh this is why there's always opportunity for new businesses because this is just part of human nature like me and you can study this we can learn this highly likely towards the end of our career is going to happen to us too.

And so this is what David Olgove says about this once every few years a great new agency is born it is ambitious hard working full of dynamite it gets old accounts or should me it gets accounts from so many of the people who are in the world.

And so it's a great thing to have an account from soft old agencies it does great work the years pass the founders get rich and tired their creative fires go out they become extinct volcanoes the agency may continue to prosper its original momentum is not yet spent it has powerful context but it has grown too big it produces dull routine campaigns based on the echo of old victories dry rot sets in at this stage it begins losing accounts to vital new agencies

ruthless upstarts who work hard and put all their dynamite into their advertisements or into their product we can all name famous agencies which are more bond you hear demoralizing whispers in their corridors long before the truth dawns on their clients back to Napoleon a good general a good core of officers a good organization good training rigid discipline makes good troops independently of the cause for which they fight never

the less fanaticism love of country national glory may also inspire young troops to advance he goes back to talk about morale right you can make good troops by having a good founder good sports staff good executives good organization good training discipline everything else but you cannot discount goes back to not never discounting the power of enthusiasm but the fanaticism is one of my favorite words because it's what Charlie monger and Warren Buffett talk about you're looking for intelligent fanatics

and important the new version of poor Charlie's on my which you and I just covered a few weeks ago I love that idea we like breaks down the entire career of sam walton I think it is for less swap to be a line that book that love that scale and fanaticism combined can be very powerful

and some examples of that would be Warren Buffett Sam Walton less swap you know these are fanatics intelligence fanatics that also achieve scale and then that combination made them even more powerful troops soon discover whether their officers are competent or not they will not follow with confidence are in

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