INITIATIVE AND LEADERSHIP 331LEADERSHIP AND TEAMWORK
Before we go further, let it be understood what is meant by the term
leadership as it is used in connection with this course. There are two
brands of Leadership, and one of them is as deadly and destructive as
the other is helpful and constructive. The deadly brand, which leads not
to success but to absolute failure, is the brand adopted by pseudoleaders
who force their leadership on unwilling followers.
Napoleon Bonaparte was a leader, there can be no doubt about this,
but he led his followers and himself to destruction. It is not Napoleon's
brand of leadership that is recommended in this course, although I will
admit that Napoleon possessed all the necessary fundamentals for great
leadership, excepting one-he lacked the spirit of helpfulness to others
as an objective. His desire for leadership was based solely upon self-
aggrandizement. It was built upon personal ambition, and not upon
a desire to lift the French people to a higher and nobler station in the
affairs of nations.
COMMENTARY
As was noted in Lesson One, Napoleon Hill often cited Napoleon Bonaparte because
when Hill was composing this work in 1927 his namesake was thought to be the
personification of charismatic but misguided leadership. At that time the world had
yet to experience Hitler or Stalin, not to mention the many other dictators, strong-
men, cult leaders, terrorists, and fanatics who ruthlessly abused their positions of
power throughout the later years of the twentieth century and the beginning of the
new millennium.The brand of Leadership that is recommended throughout this
course is the brand that leads to self-determination and freedom and
self-development and enlightenment and justice. This is the brand that
endures. For example, and as a contrast with the brand of leadership
through which Napoleon raised himself into prominence, consider our