Success Can Make People Better... Or Worse

“Success made Marcus Aurelius better. It seems to have made Seneca worse. Marcus turned to philosophy in his twenties, was first selected for the throne as a teenager, and fully inherited the throne at age 40. Despite the truism that absolute power corrupts absolutely, he somehow managed to not only maintain his philosophical principles from the throne, but seems to have taken the opportunity to become kinder, more reflective, more generous, and more open-minded the longer he was in power. ”Ryan discusses the impact that success has on character, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast.***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.

• 0:26Ryan Holiday?

  Is success making you better or worse? Success made Marcus Aurelius better. It seems to have made Seneca worse. Marcus, who turned a philosopher in his 20s, was suddenly made emperor at age 40. Despite the truism that absolute power corrupts absolutely, he somehow managed to not only maintain his philosophical principles from the throne, but seems to have taken the opportunity to become better, kinder, more reflective, more generous, more open-minded, the longer he was in power. Seneca, who was tutored in Stoicism from a very early age, had a promising career as a lawyer and then as a senator before two exiles, one for health reasons

• 1:10Ryan Holiday?

  and the other for trumped-up charges. And these exiles derailed everything. He finally got the success he craved later in life when he was called back by Nero's mother to tutor her son. Seneca became extremely powerful through this position, but it came at a high cost. He turned a blind eye to Nero's excesses and may have been complicit in his monstrous crimes. He became preposterously rich, far beyond what any philosopher needed. And when Nero truly broke bad, Seneca did little to stop us. These two examples pose to us, as history has always posed, an essential question: Will success make us better or worse? Will getting everything we wanted confirm our virtues or allow our vices to flourish?

• 1:54Ryan Holiday?

  Success should, as it did for Marcus, make us nicer, make us more empathetic, make us more principled. It should not, as it did for Seneca, demand compromises that we would have previously found abhorrent. It should not cause us to forget our friends and fall short of our ideals. It should be an opportunity to grow, not an excuse to regress, or at least be just as bad as our newfound peers. Robert Caro, the biographer, has disputed the idea that power has to corrupt. Instead, he said, "It's more apt to reveal. It shows who we actually are." It proves the idea the Stoics believed that character is fate. Who we are determines what we'll do with success or failure. So that's the real question, then.

• 2:37Ryan Holiday?

  Who are you at your core? Will we like what this success you crave will reveal? Will you? Thanks for listening to another episode of The Daily Stoic. It's mind blowing to me now that we are well over 30 million downloads of this show. It means so much to me to have all of you listen. If you want to help spread the word about the show, please leave a review on iTunes or whatever your favorite podcasting platform is. It helps a lot. And then, of course, click subscribe. That's how we know how many people are listening and that makes sure you get the episodes as they come in. So thanks again for listening to the Daily Stoic Podcast.