They said that World War II mili­tary hero George Patton couldn't or wouldn't control his temper as a young officer. Patton once ordered a mule shot. Why? It had gotten in the way of his jeep. He forced mem­bers of an anti-aircraft unit to stand at attention for being sloppily dressed, despite the fact that they had just beaten off an attack and some of the men were wounded. In one notorious incident, he slapped a hospitalized, shell-shocked soldier, and denounced the man for being a cow­ard.

Patton's commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, did not believe that Patton lacked self-control, only that he was refusing to practice it. He ordered Patton to publicly apologize for slapping the soldier, put Patton on probation, and postponed his promotion to general. Notice this: after this reprimand by Eisenhower, there were no more reports that Patton committed acts of emo­tional or physical abuse during the two remaining years of World War II. In other words, Patton could control himself when motivated to do so.