He has sold 5m books about this ancient Greek approach to life – and been feted by sports teams and CEOs. What makes this former PR man so popular?
What is it that made the former PR man turned lay philosopher Ryan Holiday a giant of the bestseller lists? That his writing on stoic philosophy is beloved by everyone from professional athletes, politicians and tech CEOs will have helped. Investor-entrepreneur Tim Ferriss calls stoicism the “ideal operating system”, while entrepreneur-fraudster Elizabeth Holmes constantly cited Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations, before her imprisonment. Sports stars from James McGee (Irish tennis pro) to Garrett Gilkey (NFL lineman) can quote from Holiday’s The Obstacle Is the Way, while celebs from Arnold Schwarzenegger to LL Cool J hat-tip Holiday in interviews.
The ancient philosophy of stoicism centres on four virtues: courage, temperance, justice and wisdom. Marshalling these will give you complete self-control, enabling you to react with equanimity to all outside stimuli, and not whine about stuff (giving us our modern, shorthand definition of stoicism, “uncomplaining”). Material wealth should mean nothing to the stoic, which makes it ironic that some of the richest people on Earth claim to live by stoicism.
