Pursue Excellence, Not Credit

Perhaps you remember reading The Odyssey in high school or college (or possibly you picked upEmily Wilson’s fabulous new translation at the Painted Porch). Even if you haven’t, you’re probably familiar with the cyclops scene. Odysseus and his men find themselves trapped in a cave with Polyphemus, the deranged, man-eating, sheep herding, one-eyed beast. Odysseus hatches an ingenious escape plan: they wait for the cyclops to fall asleep and then stab him in the eye with a sharpened log. Enraged and blinded, Polyphemus staggers to remove the stone he had rolled in front of the entrance of the cave, which frees Odysseus and his men.✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Get Stoic inspired books, medallions, and prints to remember these lessons at the Daily Stoic Store: https://store.dailystoic.com/📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook See 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.

• 0:03Ryan 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, dailystoic.com. Perhaps you remember reading The Odyssey in high school or college, or possibly you picked up Emily Wilson's fabulous translation. Even if you haven't, you're probably familiar with the cyclops scene. Odysseus and his men find themselves trapped in a cave with Polyphemus, the deranged, man-eating,

• 0:47Ryan Holiday?

  sheep-hurting, one-eyed beast. Odysseus hatches an ingenious escape plan. They wait for the cyclops to fall asleep and then stab him in the eye with a sharpened log. Enraged and blinded, Polyphemus staggers to remove the stone he had rolled in front of the entrance of the cave, which frees Odysseus and his men. It's brilliant, and best of all, Odysseus, never having given the cyclops his real name, is off scot-free. But then, just out of reach of the bleeding, angry, shouting cyclops, he turns back and taunts, "Cyclops, if any mortal asks you how your eye was mutilated and made blind,

• 1:28Ryan Holiday?

  say that Odysseus, the city-sacker, Laertes's son, who lives in Ithaca, destroyed your sight." Odysseus couldn't help himself. He wanted the credit, and he stupidly forgot that Polyphemus's father was Poseidon, and that the lord of the sea was unlikely to act kindly to someone who had blinded his son. This moment of hubris cost Odysseus something like 10 years of his life, as Poseidon threw up countless obstacles, one after the other, between Odysseus and his wife, Penelope, back home in Ithaca. It's a lesson that many people have heeded, and plenty of others have painfully forgotten ever since.

• 2:10Ryan Holiday?

  Marcus Aurelius, for his part, talked often about the worthlessness of credit. "So, you did a good thing," he says. "What do you need to be thanked for it? It felt good to do; it helped someone else. Why do you need the third thing of credit, or recognition, or gratitude?" The same goes for a clever plan or a successful business deal. Do you really need people to know you pulled it off? The answer is that you don't. In fact, it's usually better not to get credit because the right thing isn't always appreciated, because other people might get jealous, because it puffs up your ego. Think about that today and remember it always. You don't need credit. That's not what should motivate you. Do the right thing because it's right.

• 2:55Ryan Holiday?

  Pursue excellence because it's what you do. Leave the recognition and the rewards alone.

• 3:07Ryan Holiday?

  Thanks so much for listening. If you could rate this podcast and leave a review on iTunes, that would mean so much to us and it would really help the show. We appreciate it and I'll see you next episode.