My father is a brilliant man. A medical doctor, a graduate of West Point, and a captain in the Air Force who flew over China during the Korean War, jamming radar, he is also a huge fan of Napoleon Bonaparte. A long time ago, he explained to me how Napoleon divided his men into four categories. He probably had fancier names for them in French, but here’s how my dad described them to me, and that’s how I describe them to other people. Which category do you fall into?

The first type my dad called “Smart and Lazy.” Smart and lazy people end up being generals, since they would rather think than run around working. Nowadays we call it “working smart, not hard.” These people will be able to sit and think for awhile, then think again, and then come up with the most elegant, simple solution that involves the least amount of work for the maximum amount of efficacy. “Elegant,” “wise,” and “cuts to the chase” are words used to describe the Smart and Lazy types.

The second type is “Smart and Energetic.” Smart and energetic people usually end up being in middle management. For Napoleon, they’d end up being Majors and Sergeants. They like to carry out orders, supervise others, and Make Things Happen. You can give these people a general outline of what you want done, and they will work their magic, inspire others, attend to the details and quality control, and make sure it happens. They usually live by the maxim “if a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.” Seriously, we’d all be living in huts and thowing slop from our windows if it weren’t for Smart and Energetic people. They’re the ones who get the roads built, the mail delivered, and the goods in on time.

The third type is “Dumb and Lazy.” Napoleon needed these personalities to simply follow orders. These would be the men in the trenches, the men truly doing the dirty work of marching, fighting, killing, and dying. Wars would not be fought and won without these people. By “dumb and lazy,” Napoleon meant that these people would not over-think things, but would be happy to simply follow orders, be part of a team, and be content with simple rewards of food, liquor, women, cigarettes, and sleep. He could trust them to do just the bare minimum, but essential work, but didn’t have to worry about them going off in different directions, breaking order and causing chaos.

Finally, my dad called the fourth type “Dumb and Energetic.” These are the most dangerous types of all, and Napoleon apparently didn’t want these types in his army at all! Dumb and Energetic people have the energy of the Smart and Energetic, but they don’t have the intelligence to back it up: they’re just dumb! But the energetic part of them still wants to do, do, do, so they run around messing things up, tweaking things, running their own agendas, and so on. They usually have a misguided view of their own importance, and tend to swing their weight around, focusing more on their ego drives than in true development of leadership skills. In modern life, the dumb and energetic one is the one who is always coming up with a new way to do things at work that has NOT been thought out properly, gets all razzed up about it and rushes everyone into the new method, and then runs around blaming others when it all turns to poo. This is a common failing among people who are energetic, but haven’t figured out that they are also dumb!

To be fair, I can think of plenty of different situations in my life where I’ve been in one category for one set of circumstances, and the other categories in other circumstances. While I do aspire to be in the “smart and lazy” category most of the time, in my learning curve I have CERTAINLY been in the “Dumb and Energetic” category, too! I learned a great deal from my parents in the value of the “zen mind, beginners mind” approach in learning something new, by firmly remaining in the “Dumb and Lazy” group until I was ready to move up. I learned that as a beginner, it is important to be content with doing just what you’re told until you really master the basics. It is often very freeing to be in that “dumb and lazy” part of learning a new set of skills: you get praise for just doing what you’re told, and you don’t get criticized for not being innovative enough, or not “thinking outside the box”!

So when you think something’s going wrong in your life, ask yourself “what would Napoleon call me right now?” What category are you acting from? Enjoy this reflective mirror for yourself!