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He left out the part where one must have a ruthless commitment to the goals of the company (or less charitably, oneself) at the expense of people. An example f
by crdb 10y ago
He left out the part where one must have a ruthless commitment to the goals of the company (or less charitably, oneself) at the expense of people.
An example from Napoleon's life was Marengo [1]. One of his generals (Massena) was besieged by the Austrians in Genoa. Napoleon had to make a choice between rescuing him - as he had requested - or cutting off the main Austrian force led by von Melas which was making inroads towards France; he did not have enough men or time to do both. His decision to cut off von Melas paid off in eventual victory, the reappearance of "independent" Italy for the first time in centuries, and peace for France, but cost him the city and Massena's friendship, as the latter felt betrayed, raison d'etat be damned.
In another famous instance [2], he loaded grapeshot in canons and fired at massed French citizen in the streets of Paris to defend the Revolution from Royalists. His calculation was that if he slaughtered a few in a brutal manner, he'd shock the rest into retreat; he pulled it off, saved the revolution at the cost of only a few hundred lives, and was rapidly promoted thereafter.
In both cases, Napoleon's own interests were aligned with that of the country and its people. In other cases, such as choosing a policy of economic protectionism as a response to Britain's industrial revolution being too advanced to compete against, or reinstating the Catholic Church as the official state religion and making succession hereditary once again, one could argue they were not.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marengo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marengo
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13_Vend%C3%A9miaire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13_Vend%C3%A9miaire
- hluska 10y agoSorry for not replying earlier, but we deployed an app to a big government department and I've been working an obscene number of hours. This is a truly excellent response and I especially appreciate your examples. They illuminated two very important things to me: 1.) Sometimes, when we look back at our success or failures, we tend to attribute them to those things that are most favourable to us. 2.) Sometimes people who reach great heights get there at the expense of their friends or family. I would love to find some research on how divorce rates change depending upon career success. Thanks again for your excellent comment!