In REED Mag: NAPOLEON NEVER SLEPT: How Great Leaders Leverage Social Energy

From the current issue of REED Magazine:

Napoleon Never Slept: How Great Leaders Leverage Social Energy, by Maren McConnell-Collins ’98, coauthor (Maren Ink, 2015). Maren and her father, Randall Collins, a sociology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, investigate the common thread in highly successful individuals throughout history. They share their discovery that charismatic leaders motivate and are motivated by emotional energy. “Charismatic leaders set in motion positive feedback loops: people in the group build up a shared emotion; the stronger the emotion, the more they feel themselves in tune with each other, and the more tightly they focus together. And the more tightly they focus, the more their shared emotion pumps each other up.” More at www.maren.ink.

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by Randall Collins

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What would Steve Jobs or Napoleon say about Amazon's workplace culture?

Our new book is called Napoleon Never Slept: How Great Leaders Leverage Social Energy, and has to do with the fact that great leaders get to be successful at least partly because they have so much energy. Did Napoleon really not sleep? Evidently, not much. Does this mean workers shouldn't sleep, and work night and day like Amazon employees reportedly do? Not exactly.
   Our big thesis is about how great leaders, including Napoleon, Steve Jobs, Alexander the Great, and others, are energetic people (many of whom, like Napoleon, happen to sleep considerably less than 8 hours a night) who energize the people they lead, and are in turn further energized by own successes and by the energy shared by the people they lead. So no, sleeping less in and of itself isn't the secret to great success, either individually or as an organization.
   But seriously, folks, read the book. Not just because we want you to buy it, but because our thesis can't be neatly or fully conveyed in a soundbite or even in a single blog post. This is real social science, though it makes for not a very long book, and we tried to make it easy enough for the layperson who doesn't like jargon, without talking down to anyone. Suitable for pro scholars and non- alike.

UPDATE, 9/4/15
   You can buy a pretty, soothing-to-the-eyes PDF at the Maren Ink site for about $14, or a nice new Kindle edition on Amazon for nearly $40. More formats and outlets may be available eventually, depending on demand.

Cartoon credit: Rob Rogers, August 22, 2015, http://www.dailyfunnies.us

Our new book on energy & success: Napoleon Never Slept

Click to get it HERE.

"What do Steve Jobs, Sam Walton, Napoleon, and Alexander the Great have in common? How to generate emotional energy in oneself and others." It's real sociology, so it's more than a cut above the herd of success-ology books out there.

Yes, my Dad/co-author and I have been working on this for over a year. Didn't think I had it in me, did you?!

We're publishing this first just as an ebook, though we'll have a print version available soon.

Go get your success, darlings.

Best New People For Sending Lists To

I must clear one's slate here. Not my slate, just "one's."

Got a free subscription to FORBES Magazine recently, and it's not just the ugly faces on the cover that have begun to annoy me. No, it's their nonstop whining about how bad business people have it and how government regulation of business is ruining everything, and why can't they have everything they want right now because Damn it, they want it? Mine, mine! Everything should be MINE! (All this in the same issue when they proudly trumpet that capital gains are at record highs and the rich are richer than ever.)

So... A short note here on business people and other conservatives who are always calling for less government regulation on their business:

Government regulation, as unfun as it sounds, is the only thing standing between us and just letting rich business people control everything. Of course you want less government regulation, richies. Because without government regulation, the richest people would have absolute power! Kind of like going back to the era of medieval warlords and kings, but with scarier weapons.

Now, I know there are a lot of unhappy snipers who will say, "The rich already control everything anyway," "They own Congress," and so on, to which I say: Not quite.

Unless you already find yourself in slavery-- and I know some people do-- there is still some freedom left and some battling left to do. And no, corporate freedom is not the same as individual freedom. Don't even.

I could go on, but I get less cute the more I argue late into the invisible night.

So, everyone, go have fun, and let everyone enjoy their freedom as individuals. And Git off my lawn!