Imagine that you had a dream of something that was really important to you – something you could classify as a ‘burning desire to accomplish’.

If you actually began to believe that this dream could come true, that you could make it happen, how would that change your attitude towards it.

Well I’m sure that if an 8 year old Corsican boy told you in his school playground that he would one day rule France, one of the greatest Countries in the known world at that time, you would enjoy a good chuckle.

Yet young Napoleone Buonaparte is credited with having such a vision. Leaving his home at around the tender age of eight, he headed for France to finish his education. Enrolled in military school at fifteen and despite only coming 55th in his class, he began a military career.

He seized his military opportunities with great enthusiasm, becoming an artillery Captain and later famously quelled a rioting crowd with a ‘whiff of grapeshot’.

The fact that he hailed from a French colony rather than the mainland itself did not hinder him. The fact that he suffered from epilepsy did not deter him. The fact that he almost died from malnutrition because of an inadeqaute diet at the age of 19 did not stop him. By the age of 24 he was a Brigadier-General. At 25 he was imprisoned on suspicion of treason following the fall of Robespierre and narrowly escaped being guillotined.

At 26 he became a Divisional General and in October 1795 became Commander of the Army of the Interior.

Following famous campaigns that made military history in Italy and a campaign in Egypt, which though unsuccessful in military terms, led to the dicovery of the Rosetta Stone. This enabled scholars to unlock the secrets of the Pharoahs and is probably where General Napoleon Bonaparte, as he was now called really began to focus on that vision from the playground.

In 1804 he did the unthinkable. Preceding monarchs were crowned by his Holiness, the Pope. Napoleon broke tradition, seeking only a Papal blessing, and placed the Crown on his own head, becoming the person he had always aspired to be – the Emperor of France, and subsequently of a vast Empire, including most of Europe.

Napoleon had immense personal charisma. His British adversary, the Duke of Wellington, once said that the French general’s presence at a fight “made the difference of 40,000 men.”

Although his ambition and his wars led to many thousands of deaths and injuries across the world, he was a tireless driving force of a man. Surviving on fours sleep per day, he dictated to numerous secretaries at once, what we would call ‘multi-tasking to the max!”. He reorganised the French Education System, the French Local Government Systems, the French Legal System. His maxims live on today in the ‘Code Napoleon’.

“Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.”

Napoleon Bonaparte

Emperor of France

So if a diminutive, sickly, foreign child can make himself Emperor of a Super Power, through burning desire to fulfill his destiny, what goals could you achieve for yourself and your family this year?…or in your lifetime?

Tony’s Viewpoint : “The most exciting part is that the journey towards the destination is what helps you grow as a person. It is in overcoming the setbacks and smashing through the obstacles that we find ourselves.

Sometimes the original destination is replaced by a better one as a result of the experiences we gain along the way.

Hopefully this website may give you some ideas or insights into changes you might make or goals you may set that may enrich your life and the lives of those around you, whether it’s a new activity, like scuba diving or learning to fly, or it’s a holiday to a favourite destination, like the Pyramids, the Great Wall of China or the Eiffel Tower. It’s a big world out there!

Make it happen and seize the day!”

For holiday ideas and experiences, check out www.bucketlistholidays.com or contact me for information about income-producing opportunities to help afford those holidays.