We are stuck, stymied, frustrated. But it needn't be this way. There is a formula for success that's been followed by the icons of history - from John D. Rockefeller to Amelia Earhart to Ulysses S. Grant to Steve Jobs - a formula that let them turn obstacles into opportunities. Faced with impossible situations, they found the astounding triumphs we all seek.

These men and women were not exceptionally brilliant, lucky, or gifted. Their success came from timeless philosophical principles laid down by a Roman emperor who struggled to articulate a method for excellence in any and all situations.

This book reveals that formula for the first time - and shows us how we can turn our own adversity into advantage.

Listening Length

6 hours and 7 minutes
Author

Ryan Holiday
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Ryan Holiday
Audible release date

May 6, 2014
Language

English
Publisher

Tim Ferriss
ASIN

B00K5JUNSU
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	6 hours and 7 minutes
Author	Ryan Holiday
Narrator	Ryan Holiday
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	May 06, 2014
Publisher	Tim Ferriss
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B00K5JUNSU
Best Sellers Rank	#257 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #3 in Philosophy Movements (Books) #4 in Philosophy (Audible Books & Originals) #7 in Business Motivation & Self-Improvement (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

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1 star		2%

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Talia

A philosophy I can apply to every hour of my waking life

Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2017

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I looooove this book. The ideas aren't entirely new. It's more like the author has taken the most important aspects of wisdom and compiled it into effective examples and phrases that really hit home. I've underlined every page. It's really helped me be less reactive, more intentional, more disciplined, and even keel. I wish the book was longer and that there were more authors writing about this philosophy. The premise is simple: focus your energy on the the things that are in your power to change, and don't waste your energy on emotional turbulence or hyper-analyzing everything. The reason this philosophy has the power to inspire so many more books is that it can apply to every aspect of our life: how and whether we muster the courage to make a change, how we drive our cars, how we schedule our days, what we choose to eat, how and whether we resolve conflicts.

One of the most helpful applications of this book is changing the ways I interact with my family of origin. My parents and siblings are anxious, doubtful, and pessimistic. For the most part, I am not. However, for years I've struggled with my own reactions to being around them. Every family holiday or vacation caused me to regress to adolescence, and after each event, it took weeks for me to recover. Through this book, I realized that my reacting to their reactivity was totally ironic. I don't have to react to them. Once I became aware of this, it became a choice. Now, I can choose to see these family events as opportunities to feel grateful for my own equanimity. And when I do lose balance, I can be easy on myself, because I remember that new habits take a while to develop. I can also choose to remove myself from environments that aren't serving me.

Very empowering, very practical. Thank you, Ryan Holiday!

483 people found this helpful

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Robert Hannah

It is definitely an entertaining book and if that is what you are after by all means enjoy. For self improvement and moderate stoic insight it ...

Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2017

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It is your typical self help book bundled around Stoic philosophy. Every chapter will contain some insight on Stoicism preceded or followed by a historical story about some individual who lived up to the practice.

It is definitely an entertaining book and if that is what you are after by all means enjoy. For self improvement and moderate stoic insight it would also be an acceptable and useful addition to ones library.

For deeper exploration and prescriptive tools to start your journey in to Stoicism refer to Donald Robertson's Stoicism and the Art of Happiness. For continuous study and original works look for Epictetus's Discourses and The Enchiridion (My favorites) as well as Seneca's Letters From A Stoic.
For advanced application look to Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. For broadening your sphere look to works by Rufus, Zeno, and Socrates.

417 people found this helpful

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85297006142

Severely overrated

Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2019

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This book is literally the title and no more. There are no techniques or insights into "how" to overcome obstacles, just countless examples of "great people" who managed to overcome obstacles and achieved "greatness". Highly recommend ***not*** purchasing.

260 people found this helpful

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almost there

A lesson learned...

Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2017

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One huge lesson Ryan has taught me is to not be too quick to prejudge the value of a book about life based on the author's age, an inherent bias I suppose a a lot of people my age has. I am 62 years old and believe that wisdom only comes with experience and education, and experience is a function of quality and quantity. It is rare to find someone in their early 30s with such insight into life. This book is excellent and has ignited in me the desire to learn more about Stoicism. I enthusiastically recommend this book.

Joe Junfola

96 people found this helpful

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Outstanding. I used to have a practice. Each ...

Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2016

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Outstanding. I used to have a practice. Each year, at the end of the year, I would take about 20 minutes to write a list of all of the "bad" things that happened that year. Then, I would take the list outside, burn it and bury the ashes. Kind of a release from the burdens or pain that came from the tough times. They were over. I could move on. Now, I make the same list, but instead of burning it, I go back over the list and beside each "bad" thing, I write a positive development that came from it. I think about what I learned or how I worked through the challenge. This empowers me to actually appreciate and show gratitude for the tough things that happen. Positive change of mindset from reading this book. Thanks.

342 people found this helpful

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jster82

Underwhelming at best

Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2018

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I couldn’t get through this book. Examples of most famous people used in the book were morally ambiguous at best. Not people I really want to emulate. The only positive of this book is that it makes you want to read the true stoics. Start there.

171 people found this helpful

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Sam

Surprisingly worthy of reviews

Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2016

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The most actionable advice from a self-help book that I've seen. I don't know the motivations of the author, but it doesn't matter. So much usable material packed into one place...my version is highlighted and marked up and I open it up to a random page whenever I need some inspiration.

So many years, so much pop-psychobabble, yet the ancients had the most pragmatic approach all along. Makes sense, when you stop to think of how much harder and less predictable life was.

96 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Neil Lucock

Best avoided, buy something better

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 8, 2018

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This had lots of good reviews and was recommended by a Stoic site, but I don't think it is worth having. I've read about half up to now and I'm losing interest, I doubt I'll finish reading it. Lots of heartwarming examples of people who were not actually Stoics but exhibited some form of Stoic behaviour don't really convince me that the author had anything useful to say. The book feels like he padded it out to make the word count, there's little in the way of original insights or things you didn't realise. The fact that he uses a lot of stories from American sports is something I personally find tedious, I have no idea who the people are or what he's writing about. I really dislike chapters that are three pages long. I also found his use of English was poor, it's not fluid, you constantly notice how he's expressed himself, rather than what he's said. Good English should be unobtrusive and flow from the page to the reader's mind without you noticing it.

He does explain the basics, so it's not a bad book to read if you have never encountered Stoic ideas before, but he doesn't seem to cover the subject in any depth. I'm waiting for him to introduce concepts like Eudaimonia and Apatheia, but this book reads too much like a self-help book for my taste. He's constantly offering military insights, not all of them accurate (The German attack on Poland in 1939 was a series of Kesselslachen, not Blitzkrieg). Lots of them are about American generals, quite a rich field where you can find many good examples, but after a quick introduction of Sherman (for example), he briefly discusses his personal qualities and he then moves on. Sherman wasn't a stoic (He was a Catholic as an adult), it's as if the author is trying to find things that can be used to support his views. Sherman was mired in controversy several times in his life and had a nervous breakdown in 1861. He was an effective general but not a good choice to support the book's narrative. This book is more like a magazine article or an essay written by someone who knows nothing about the subject but has researched it well on-line.
There are a lot of better books to read on the subject that offer more depth and better insights. I'd not recommend this book to anyone who showed any interest in the subject.

236 people found this helpful

Liam Kelleher

Nauseating, limited research and poorly written - made me angry, not stoic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 8, 2020

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Have you ever seen those ads on the internet? “Change your life today for only all of your money”. And you are taken to some badly written course outline that reeks of a pyramid scheme. The self help world is riddled with cons and Ryan Holiday is the latest addition.

The man is a tv marketer by background - he knows how to fool the masses. And he has somehow managed to get his online badly written life changing course printed.

He basically takes a few basic stoic concepts - don’t worry about what you can’t control, work hard, remain positive etc - and spin a book out of it. Throw in the names of Marcus Aurelius and Seneca along with some modern anecdotes and you are deemed a genius, according to a few people on the back (who clearly haven’t read the book or are part of the self help pyramid scheme)

The anecdotes themselves are horribly cliché. Just name drops people that everyone will know such as Edison, Lincol, Eisenhower, the Lakers (marketing 101 - don’t lose your audience). The bits and bobs of history are so basic and sometimes just wrong - I’m not sure he even bothered to google some of it.

The attempts at motivation amount to little other than “are you ready to go to work? Let’s get to work!”

The writing is blatantly dreadful and nauseating “Lincoln possessed an inner mental fortress that girdered him” Jesus.

It might seem like a good book if you are under 20 and haven't read any self help books before but if you’ve ever read any few before this, you will be quite disappointed with this.

31 people found this helpful

Pragmatic Engineer

4* for the novice, 3* for experienced readers

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 1, 2017

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I had high expectations for this book which it didn't quite live up to. Ryan Holiday opens this book and bases his narrative around a quote by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, which indicates there are 3 critical steps to overcoming an obstacle: (i) perspective, (ii) action and (iii) will/perseverance.

The book is then subsequently sectioned into 3 parts on (i) perspective, (ii) action and (iii) will/perseverance. Each part is divided into roughly 8-10 sub sections. Each sub section is several pages long and offers one key insight. e.g. perspective can be objective/subjective or perspectives create opportunities etc etc.

The book uses anecdotes of successful historical figures to validate ideas which includes the use of Politicians (Lincoln, Roosevelt), Athletes (Hurricane Carter), George Clooney to name a few. There is also many references to Stoic philosophers (Epictetus, Demosthenes, Marcus etc).

Overall I agreed mostly with the proposition of the book. I didn't however believe that the anecdotes supply sufficient reasoning to argue these points. It felt that the author cherry-picked case-studies to fit his narrative.

I also tended to find the writing style was slightly awkward and a lot of sentences were of this nature: "leadership requires determination, energy and courage" which by itself often seemed irrelevant. The author also feels the need to use 2 descriptive words at all instances, e.g. "It's easier to persist in our efforts and actions than to endure the uncomfortable or the painful"

Furthermore, if the reader has read about Stoicism before (e.g. The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by Irvine) then much of the Stoic ideas are recycled. For an introduction to Stoicism with logical arguments I would recommend Irvine (5* read).

To conclude I feel the overall idea is good. This book will be useful for anyone who has to deal with adverse circumstances. It will appeal to people who prefer anecdotes over reasoning.

68 people found this helpful

An A4 page article would have sufficed

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 21, 2018

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I have both the audio book and the paper copy of this book. I first got the audio book and thought somehow the content sounded just plain repetitive - different words same message; so thought I'd read the book instead so that I can follow it with more attention. But it transpired that page after page after page may have been filled by the author with words but it is repetition, repetition, and yet more repetition of the message behind the content. If that was deliberate then well done to the author, he nailed it. For those readers and seekers of wisdom (or better understanding of stoicism) find and stick to a good translation of Meditations book of Marcus Aurelius instead; that's where you'll find the originality.

41 people found this helpful

Overly simplistic and one dimensional

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 24, 2020

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I'm no expert on Stoic philosophy but my understanding of it was that can help us be more calm and resilient. Holiday repackages it into some kind of motivation way to make money in order to be successful. The likes of Marcus Aurelious and Seneca would turn in their graves if their philosophy was compared to unscrupulous business owners like John D Rockefellar. He thinks that just by inserting Stoicism on the front cover and a load of philosophical quotes, he can verify his message. He often power phrases these quotes so that he can subtly twist their meaning to suit his own narrative. His main message seems to be that other people are our enemies and they must be vanquished at all costs. I can imagine someone like Patrick Bateman (American Psycho) or Hitler, before invading Poland, lapping this up. Okay Hitler was a bit extreme. He also often contradicts himself, for example we should never give up, but a few pages later, we should never be wedded to a position or some things in life are bigger than us. We should not worry if our actions limit or hurt others and then we should consider their feelings. We need to take urgent action and then we shouldn't be in a hurry. He also randomly mentions we can control what we desire....
He also says we should ignore our feelings and perceptions. While I agree that we should be skeptical of our feelings as they can be unhelpful, we should from time to time at least try to understand where they come from. His approach seems to be to bury our heads in the sand, this seems like the road to toxic masculinity. He likes a bit of good old fashioned male bravado, life is a race and you have to win.
He doesn't take into account simple bad luck and other variables and simply repeats page after page that we need to tackle our problems. We do, but there are other things at play.
For example if our boss asks something unfeasible at work we shouldn't question it, just put our head down and work harder. Working harder seems to be his main tip for a better life, making him sound like Boxer from Animal Farm. Don't question authority or the status quo, just shut up and get on with it. I can imagine what he thinks of protests like BLM.
There are some useful tips however, such as approach obstacles as an opportunity to practice a virtue, such as patience, forgiveness or courage and that we are in control of how we react to our problems. Also we are all guilty of procrastination at times and could benefit from more action. I agree that life is hard and often things contradict themselves. (I'm doing it in this review)
I agree that a degree of anxiety is required in every life but Holiday's approach will have people slitting their wrists and having sky high blood pressure all over the place. He's reinforcing a dog eat dog world where there has to winners and losers. If you're not the next Steve Jobs, cunningly defeating your enemies and taking all the credit, you're a failure and should be ashamed for not working harder. Something Seneca will help us come to terms with a million times better than Holiday.

15 people found this helpful

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