Wayyyyy back in 170 CE, Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote a simple yet powerful idea: obstacles aren't roadblocks - they're the road itself. And that's exactly what Ryan Holiday picked up millenniums later in his The Obstacle Is the Way! No fluffy self-help here - this book gets straight to the point about turning problems into progress. Holiday unpacks how everyone from Lincoln to Earhart actually used setbacks to surge ahead, making their so-called disadvantages work for them. The meat...
A Lesson in Seeing Things Differently
When the devastating market depression, the Panic of 1857 hit Cleveland, young bookkeeper, aspiring investor John D. Rockefeller did something unusual - he got excited. This 16-year-old newcomer to finance saw the Panic as his personal masterclass in how markets really work. Instead of running away (like his unreliable father had done from family responsibilities), Rockefeller watched and learned.Lesson #1, panic makes people stupid. While others were frantically selling their businesses at rock-bottom prices, Rockefeller quietly saved his money. Lesson...
The Power to Choose Your Response
Following our look at Rockefeller's masterclass in keeping cool, Holiday introduces us to an even more dramatic story - Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a middleweight boxing champion who faced something far worse than market crashes.Wrongly convicted of triple homicide, Carter walked into prison wearing a designer suit and made a bold declaration: they could lock up his body, but not his mind. While most would crumble under three life sentences, Carter turned his cell into a personal university. He refused prison...
Just Tilt Your Head
For the final lesson on perspective, Holiday takes us back to ancient Greece, where General Pericles showed his soldiers a brilliant lesson: sometimes all you need to do is look at things differently. During a naval mission, a solar eclipse threw his 150 ships into darkness. While his crew panicked, Pericles calmly walked up to a steersman and held a cloak around the man's face. "Are you scared of this darkness?" he asked. When the man said no, Pericles delivered...
Stop Thinking, Start Doing
You know what's funny about action? We're brilliant at it when we're in danger. Trip on the sidewalk and your hands shoot out to break your fall - no committee meetings needed. But give us a real problem in life? Suddenly we're masters of procrastination.Meet Demosthenes. This Greek guy was life's punching bag - sickly, speech-impaired, orphaned at seven, robbed of his inheritance. Instead of writing sad poetry about it, he got to work. Pebbles in his mouth to fix...
Master "The Process"
Getting to work in our fast-paced world is a bit tricky. It's easy to get caught up in the end goal and lose sight of the small, incremental steps required to get there. But as the legendary coach Nick Saban knows, the secret to success is all about mastering the process.You see, Saban doesn't encourage his players to fixate on winning championships. Instead, he wants them to focus on nailing each and every drill, play, and moment. Why? Because the...
Prepare for None of It to Work
In the wise words of the ancient philosopher Seneca, we must learn to "not give in to adversity, not trust prosperity, and always take full note of fortune's habit of behaving just as she pleases." Truer words have never been spoken, people! You see, the harsh reality is that no matter how well we plan, no matter how much we try, there will ALWAYS be obstacles in our path that are simply out of our control. Try as we might,...
Art of Will
Will isn't what most people think it is. It's not about forcing things to happen through sheer determination or gritting your teeth until you get your way. Real will, as history's greatest leaders show us, is about developing an unshakeable inner fortress - one that stands firm when everything else crumbles. And here's the secret that the great Stoic thinkers understood - the one thing we can truly control is our own response. While the external world may lie beyond...
The Real Strength
After fighting for ten years in the Trojan War, Odysseus, the legendary Greek hero faced another decade of incredible challenges just trying to get home. Storms, sea monsters, angry gods - the works. Yet he never gave up. That's perseverance! The power to keep moving toward your goal no matter how long it takes or what stands in your way. And this perseverance is more than just grinding through obstacles. Take Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese explorer who led the first expedition...
Death, Life, and Everything in Between
The final puzzle piece for will: death!! Death has a way of making life interesting. Just ask Michel de Montaigne, who got thrown off his horse in 1569 and lived to tell the tale. While his friends carried his seemingly lifeless body home, he experienced something rare - watching his own life force drift away, only to snap back at the last moment. And instead of being traumatized, Montaigne turned this brush with death into rocket fuel for life. He became...
Summary
So here you are! You've just walked through a door that countless others have stepped through before you. Every single person we met in these pages took their obstacles and, instead of running away, said "Is that all you've got?" But here's the thing: They weren't superhuman. Neither was Holiday when he wrote this book, and neither are you. What they had – what you now have – is a practical approach to handling life's challenges. Not some complicated system...
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About the Author
Author, media strategist, and bookstore owner Ryan Holiday hails from the United States. He is also the host of the podcast called Daily Stoic. The Obstacle is the Way, Ego is the Enemy, and Stillness is the Key are some of his other books.
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