Start Strong, Finish Strong. That Is The Way.

“It was on this day 1841 years ago that Marcus Aurelius came to the end. It had been an incredible life, as we’ve talked about. From an ordinary kid to the ruler of the world, this boy who would be king, had made the absolute best of the hand he had been dealt. He hadn’t been corrupted by power, but shared it. He hadn’t been made bitter by adversity but great because of it. Even the plague--which had dragged on for years--had brought out the best in Marcus Aurelius.”Ryan explains why you must try to live up to Marcus Aurelius’s example, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast. The Boy Who Would Be King is out now, written by Ryan Holiday in the depths of the pandemic (not unlike the one Marcus ruled through), this new beautifully crafted book is available now. Go to dailystoic.com/king to order now and you’ll automatically get the free audiobook.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better. Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow Daily Stoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. 📢 Share | ⚙️ Manage Subscription

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:04Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you find strength, insight, and wisdom in everyday life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at DailyStoic.com.

• 0:27Ryan Holiday?

  Start strong, finish strong. That is the way. It was on this day 1841 years ago that Marcus Aurelius came to the end. It had been an incredible life, as we've talked about. From an ordinary kid to the ruler of the world, this boy who would be king had made the absolute best of the hand he had been dealt. He hadn't been corrupted by power. He shared it. He hadn't been made bitter by adversity, but great because of it. Even the plague, which had dragged on for years, had brought out the best in Marcus Aurelius. But now, time had run out. All good things come to an end.

• 1:11Ryan Holiday?

  Marcus began to show symptoms of the plague. His doctor gave him a week at most. Marcus gathered his five most trusted advisors to plan for his succession and to ensure a peaceful transition of power. Grieving, those advisors were too pained to think of a future without him. But Marcus reproached them, one biographer tells us, for taking such an unphilosophical attitude. They should instead be thinking about the implications of the Antonine Plague and pondering death in general. "Weep not for me," began Marcus's famous last words. "Think rather of the pestilence and the deaths of so many others. He would survive a day or so more." Perhaps it was in these last moments,

• 1:55Ryan Holiday?

  weak in body but still strong in will, that he jotted down the last words that appear in Meditations, a reminder to himself about staying true to Stoic philosophy. "Make your exit with grace," he said, "the same grace shown to you." Yes, the story of Marcus Aurelius is a story that teaches us how to live well, but it is also a story about how to go out well. It's a story that epitomizes that line from Da Vinci. "As a well-spent day brings a happy sleep," he said, "so life well-used brings happy death." Maybe happy is too high a bar. How about decent, strong, empathetic, graceful?

• 2:38Ryan Holiday?

  Marcus was all these things at the end. Because his training had made him this way, he was prepared for life's final challenge. He rose to this occasion as he had the others. Will you? Have you trained? Have you studied his example? You must. And on this anniversary of Marcus Aurelius's death, we celebrate The Boy Who Would Be King, my newest book about the early boyhood of Marcus Aurelius. How that early training shaped him and became the man who could face death so bravely and serenely. It's an illustrated fable of Marcus's incredible life, designed for all ages to tell a story of the ages. You can check it out now in the Daily Stoic store, where you get the audiobook for free.

• 3:23Ryan Holiday?

  You can also pick up a copy on Amazon, or a personalized signed copy from me in the Daily Stoic store. So go to store.dailystoic.com and check out The Boy Who Would Be King.