Napoleon's story

Napoleon's father, a very arrogant but poor Corsican nobleman, sent Napoleon to an aristocratic school in Brienne. Here he had to interact with classmates who boasted of their wealth and ridiculed his poverty. This ridicule deeply wounded young Napoleon's pride and aroused his strong anger, but he could do nothing about it but give in to this authority. Later he could not stand it any longer and wrote to his father: "I am tired of explaining my poverty to endure the ridicule of these foreign children, whose only superiority is money, and whose noble thoughts are far below mine. Should I remain forever humble before these rich and proud people?"

　　"We have no money, but you must finish your studies there." This was his father's answer. So he suffered in that school for five whole years. But every taunt, every hazing, every contemptuous attitude there increased his determination to be good and to show these stupid rich people by practical actions that he was indeed better than them.

　　So, how did he do it? It was certainly not an easy task. He didn't make empty boasts at all. He simply planned in his mind and decided to use these mindless and arrogant people as a bridge to get himself to the pinnacle of power, wealth, and fame.

　　He became an ensign when he was 16 years old. But in that very year, he suffered another blow - his father died. Thus, he had to take a portion of his already pitiful salary to help his mother.

　　His companions were spending their extra time pursuing women and gambling. His unpopular physique made him ineligible for the former, and his poverty disqualified him from participating in the latter. So, he changed his course and tried to compete with them by burying his head in books. Reading was something as free and unrestricted as breathing, and the fact that at that time they enjoyed the right to borrow books from the library free of charge gave him a great deal to gain.

　　He did not read aimlessly, he did not read exclusively to amuse himself, but he read to prepare for his ideal future, and he was determined to show the world that he had some talent. Therefore, he was guided by this determination in choosing the category of books. At that time, he lived in a small and airy room, lonely and stifling. There he was often ashen-faced, but he never stopped trying.

　　The reading notes he made during those years of hard reading, which were later printed, amounted to more than 400 pages. There he imagined himself as commander-in-chief, mapping out the island of Corsica and indicating on the map where precautions should be laid out. All of this he calculated mathematically and precisely. Thus, his mathematical talents were thus developed. Seeing that Napoleon was very learned, his commanding officer facilitated his work by sending him to do some work that required extremely complicated calculations. He did these jobs so beautifully that he was given other opportunities. Before he and the world knew what the future would bring, Napoleon was already on the road to power.

　　Everything has thus changed, people who used to laugh at him now come around him, wanting a share of the prize he got; people who used to despise him now want to become his friends; people who used to deride him as short, incompetent and deadly, now become respectful of him. They all became his loyal followers.

　　Was it genius that caused this strange change, or was it his tireless hard work that finally paid off? He was indeed smart, and he was indeed willing to work hard. But there was something more important and powerful than knowledge or hard work that drove him, and that was his ambition to surpass those who teased him.

　　What would it have been like if his classmates had not laughed at his poverty if his father had allowed him to drop out of school if he had not suffered the pain of demeaning teasing? One thing is certain: if that were the case, there would not be a Napoleon known to all the world. What made him such a great man was the result of all his misfortunes. From these misfortunes, he knew the secret of victory by overcoming his shortcomings.