Is This What You Spend Your Life For?

“Early on in Address Unknown, a haunting novel about the rise of fascism in Germany in the 1930s, two German entrepreneurs write to each other with much affection about their business success. One line, written from the entrepreneur Max to his friend Martin, stops us cold in the way that truth, rendered in fiction, occasionally can.”Ryan discusses the cost of the things and experiences that we chase after, and why we must spend our time wisely, 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.

• 0:27Ryan Holiday?

  Is this what you spend your life for? Early on in Address Unknown, a haunting novel about the rise of fascism in Germany in the 1930s, two German entrepreneurs write each other with much affection about their business success. One line, written from one character to the other via letter, stops us cold in the way that truth rendered in fiction occasionally can. "Is it for this we spend our lives?" he says, "to scheme for money and then to strut it publicly." Boom. Isn't it? Isn't that what so many of us are doing? Seneca reminds us that success and wealth are often won at the cost of life. He speaks with great pity of the Romans, who slave away managing their slaves, who accumulate great fortunes,

• 1:11Ryan Holiday?

  which they then spend inordinate amounts of time trying to find ways to display and fritter about. Marcus Aurelius himself, a possessor of great wealth and power, would write to himself, especially when he felt self-important, "Are you afraid of death? Because you won't be able to do this anymore." Remember that every dollar you earn costs you time and energy. Every minute you spend puffing yourself up or crafting an impressive profile to cut for others is time you can't get back. Think of the richest people who ever lived. In the end, what did their money get them? Who lives in their estates now? Does anyone even care about the art they bought or the monuments they commissioned for themselves? No. These things come at the cost of life

• 1:54Ryan Holiday?

  at the expense of our most precious resource. So spend it wisely.

• 2:01Ryan Holiday?

  And look, obviously, that's the message of the idea of memento mori. You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think. I carry that memento mori medallion in my pocket, as I've said before, which you can check out at store.dailystoic.com.