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"Bunker Bean" (by Harry L. Wilson) was raised to believe
that he was a complete failure to everyone and everything. He believed what he was told. All throughout his childhood into
adulthood he lived a life full of fear, timidity and failure. One day Bunker Bean met a fortune teller and she told him that
he was the reincarnation of Napoleon Bonaparte. Bunker of course was shocked to learn that he was once the master of the civilized
world; rich, brave, powerful, and fearless. The fortune teller told him that he actually still possessed all of the qualities
that Napoleon had and that the time was right for those qualities to come to fruition in his life.
The astounding
news inspired Bunker Bean. He went to the library and voraciously read all that he could find about Napoleon. He collected
pictures of the great emperor and hung them everywhere in his small, shabby apartment. He began to imitate the speech, manners
and behavioral patterns of Napoleon. In his mind he was becoming that great man again.
Before long, Bunker Bean climbed
to the top of the business and social worlds. He achieved great wealth, power, and fame. But one day Bunker Bean discovered
that the great fortune teller was a fraud. He'd been deceived by her. He really wasn't the reincarnation of the great Napoleon,
after all. Bunker Bean was crushed. But in the years that he had assumed the role of Napoleon he had formed the habits that
go with success and habits are hard to break. Bunker couldn't change. Being successful was now as natural to him as being
a failure was before.
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