I remember exactly where I was. Twenty years ago, I was working in Hollywood. On my lunch break, I was at Philly’s Pizza on La Cienega and Olympic, reading The 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene. In a chapter about the “divide-and-conquer” strategy, Robert writes about the Athenians’ legendary stand against a massive Persian invasion on the plains of Marathon in 490 B.C. After the battle in Marathon, the soldiers had to immediately race back to Athens where a second Persian fleet...| RyanHoliday.net
I think it’s safe to say that no one is great at anything by accident. So in one sense, greatness is a choice. We choose to be great. You get to decide, ‘I’m going to take this craft, sport, talent, profession, discipline, genre, or subject as far as I am capable of taking it.’ That’s up to you. But on the other hand, I don’t know if you get to choose what you’re great at. I don’t want to be too mystical about it, but I think what we get called to do is a confluence of circums...| RyanHoliday.net
Come see me live in Austin and San Diego this year. Get your tickets here. It’s ironic that the only thing we all seem to agree on lately is that there’s a lot to be angry about. This is what traditional media and social media both fuel…and then there is also the fact that reality itself is pretty awful. Our airports suck. Our politicians are cowards. Our systems are broken. Things are too expensive. Our environment is being ravaged. Horrible things are being done by people who se...| RyanHoliday.net
This originally ran in The Free Press. Poems have always been earnest. That’s why some of them are so cringe. Rhapsodizing about nature. Pouring out your heart to a lover. Finding deep meaning in small things. Brooding on mortality. But a few years ago, I was talking to Allie Esiri for the Daily Stoic podcast about her wonderful book A Poem For Every Night of the Year, which I have been reading to my sons since they were little. I mentioned that I was struck by the earnest desire for self...| RyanHoliday.net
Get the limited edition collector’s set of my series on The Stoic Virtues. I think people get it wrong. I know I did. When the Stoics say that the obstacle is the way, that there’s an opportunity in every obstacle, most of us take that to mean there’s some way to turn adversity into advantage. We think of entrepreneurs pivoting during a downturn and building a billion-dollar business. We think of an investor buying back their own stock or taking advantage of being underestimated by thei...| RyanHoliday.net
A few years ago, I was really stuck. I had accepted a one-year consulting contract that required me to commute from Austin to Los Angeles. It paid very well, but the gig was a disaster. Everything was in chaos. No one could get anything done. We were at the complete mercy of a Wall Street hedge fund and a bunch of lawyers who were battling for control of the company. I was frustrated. After I ran into a brick wall multiple times, it was like learned helplessness. What could I do? What was the...| RyanHoliday.net
From my run on a trail overlooking Mt. Olympus. On a fateful day in the fourth century BC, the Phoenician merchant Zeno lost everything. While traveling through the Mediterranean Sea with a cargo full of Tyrian purple dye, his ship wrecked upon the rocks, his cargo lost to the sea. He washed up in Athens. We’re not sure what caused the wreck, but it devastated him financially, physically, emotionally. It could have been the end of his story—the loss could have driven him to drink or...| RyanHoliday.net
I remember driving home from my high school graduation, excited. I was excited not because I was done with school but because of what I was about to start. I’d been working with a friend to put up my first website. I was going to be a writer. I’m sure whatever I wrote that day was terrible but that’s sort of the point. It was the first of many, many days. Two decades of days, in fact. I have been writing almost every day for twenty years. How many millions of words is that? I don’t kn...| RyanHoliday.net
There is something melancholic about birthdays. I’m not the first to notice this. Another year has gone by, a wise man once said, and we can’t help but note how little we’ve grown. “No matter how desperate we are that someday a better self will emerge,” he said, “with each flicker of the candles on the cake, we know it’s not to be, that for the rest of our sad, wretched pathetic lives…this is who we are to the bitter end…..inevitably, irrevocably. Happy birthday? No such thi...| RyanHoliday.net
—Today’s newsletter is sponsored by Shortform. It was a sales pitch, so I take it with a grain of salt, but according to an email I got a few weeks ago, I have a seven-figure opportunity sitting in front of me. And I’m apparently too stupid or closed-minded to see it. All I would have to do is partner with a supplement maker and produce a line of supplements connected to the Daily Stoic brand—marketing their ability to help with “calm, clarity, and resilience”—and I could very...| RyanHoliday.net
Some people travel for the food. Others for the nightlife. Some travel for work. Others travel to get away. I travel for the swimming. I mean that’s not really why I travel–I’m usually on the road because I’m giving a talk or I have a meeting–but if I am on the road, what I am looking for is somewhere to swim. Believe it or not, I actually planned the Stillness Is The Key book tour around cities that had cool athletic club pools. In 2019, I swam at the Olympic Club in San F...| RyanHoliday.net
But first…Join me live in conversation with my friend and mentor, George Raveling, on May 29th at The Painted Porch Bookshop! George is one of the most remarkable people of the 20th century. He became the first African American basketball coach in what’s now the Pac-12 and went on to have a Hall of Fame career. He was instrumental in bringing Michael Jordan to Nike and has mentored some of the most influential coaches in college basketball. You do not want to miss this event. Get...| RyanHoliday.net
Coach Pete Carroll has said that another disappointing season with the New England Patriots—some 15 years into his career—it struck him that he didn’t actually have a coaching philosophy. He was mostly winging it. Inspired by John Wooden’s “Pyramid of Success” philosophy, Carroll got to work filing binders with notes, compiling, defining, and codifying what would become known as his “Win Forever” philosophy—the winning actions and mindsets he aims to instill in his staff and...| RyanHoliday.net
It was a crazy idea from the start. My wife and I were sitting at a cafe in Bastrop, TX and we spotted an empty storefront, a building that’s part of the National Register of Historic Places. “You know what would be amazing there?” my wife said. “A bookstore.” We started construction the first week of March 2020. But somehow, we didn’t lose all our money. It didn’t blow up our marriage. It’s actually been a great experience and, even more surprising, a pretty good business...| RyanHoliday.net
Here we are…at the halfway point of the 2020s. The first half seems like it was both yesterday and forever ago, doesn’t it? Tempus fugit. That’s what the ancients said. Time flies. But as time passes, as the world changes, how many of us just stay the same? Incredible, unbelievable events have transpired, but I would not say I have transformed myself in any incredible or unbelievable way. We go on being the way we always were, not unlike, as Marcus Aurelius noted, those gladiators...| RyanHoliday.net
I don’t have goals. I know that might seem a little crazy, but it’s true. I don’t. There’s not a certain amount of books I’m trying to write. There’s not a certain amount of books I’m trying to sell. I don’t have a “number” that I’m trying to hit financially. There’s not a certain number of downloads I’m trying to get my podcast to or followers I want to reach. I run every day, but I’m not training to run a marathon. I swim a lot (as we talked about recent...| RyanHoliday.net
A few years ago, Tim Ferriss asked if I would come over for dinner. It was clear he wanted to ask me something, although he wouldn’t say what. I really could not have guessed that he was asking permission to hire away my research assistant Hristo Vassilev to run his podcast, which Hristo has done ever since. A couple years later, Tim would poach my actual assistant, Loni, too. The reason for the dinner is that Tim is a good guy and more, Hristo had told Tim he would only accept the job if I...| RyanHoliday.net
I’ve written 12 best-selling books, covering topics like philosophy, marketing, history, and how to live well. Below you can find a list of all my books, along with links for purchasing them online. For my Stoic works, you can purchase a signed and personalized copy, and for a truly unique purchase, you can order the limited leather-bound edition of The Daily Stoic. If you are in the Austin area and want to help support local independent bookstores, you can stop by The Painted Porch Books...| RyanHoliday.net
A few weeks ago, I was running early in the morning in Arizona. I probably should have waited for it to get light out, but I had a busy day ahead of me and wanted to squeeze it in. I even remember thinking as I left, as I turned on my woefully insufficient flashlight on my phone, I hope this isn’t a mistake. The answer came not three steps later, when I went down and my ankle rolled hard to the left. After washing off my scrapes and testing the ankle, I decided to push through the run and g...| RyanHoliday.net
The other day I was reading a book and I came across a little anecdote. It was about the great Athenian general Themistocles. Before the battle of Salamis, he was locked in a vigorous debate with a Spartan general about potential strategies for defeating the Persians. Themistocles was clearly in the minority with his views (but which ultimately turned out to be right and saved Western Civilization). He continued to interpret and contradict the other generals. Finally, the Spartan general thre...| RyanHoliday.net
Parenting is all about discipline. It’s about being strict and firm and unrelenting. Not with your kids, to be clear. That’s being a disciplinarian. When I say parenting is all about discipline, I’m talking about the only form that matters: self-discipline. There is a story about one of those legendary Beat parties in the early 1960s. Allen Ginsberg was hosting. Jack Kerouac was there holding court. There were drugs and ideas and romance. There was effortless cool and artistic genius on...| RyanHoliday.net
