There Have Always Been Haters (and Always Will Be)

Ryan talks about why you can’t let critics paralyze you, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast. Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/emailFollow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and FacebookSee 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.

• 0:05Ryan 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?

  There have always been haters, and there always will be. Given how terrible most of the Roman emperors were, you might think that Marcus Aurelius was universally loved. Of course, this was not true. Plenty of people hated him. Plenty of people thought they should be in charge and not him. In fact, one of his best friends betrays him in a terrible coup. But even now, centuries later, he's overlooked or even outright criticized, as a recent interview with the historian Mary Beard illustrates. Do you think this got to Marcus Aurelius? Would it get to him today if he was around to see what people thought of him? Absolutely not. In Meditations, he writes that "one of the realities of leadership is that you earn a bad reputation by good deeds.

• 1:11Ryan Holiday?

  No matter who you are or what you do, you'll have haters. If you don't want any, then it's best not to try anything, to do anything, or be worth talking about at all." There are always going to be people who dislike you, who criticize you, who attack you. And for the most part, these reasons will have nothing to do with you and everything to do with those leveling the attacks. But unfortunately, many people waste their time stressing about fighting against and trying to change those opinions, which, as always, remain firmly outside of our control. We have to resist that impulse. We have to be like Marcus Aurelius. We have to focus on what we control. We have to do the right thing. The rest does not matter.

• 1:56Ryan Holiday?

  Thanks so much for listening to the Daily Stoic Podcast. Again, if you don't know this, you can get these delivered to you via email every day. So check it out, dailystoic.com/email.