This is Your Reward

Ryan explains what you get for doing the right thing, 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?

  This is your reward. Rutilius Rufus, as we detail in Lives of the Stoics, was incorruptible. And what was his reward for this? He was indicted on trumped-up charges and driven into exile. Marcus Aurelius was good and decent and fair. For this, fate handed him a plague and floods, and then his best friend attempted a coup. And how do modern historians recognize this? Well, Mary Beard recently called him fascist. That's how it goes. Life is not fair. Dr. Catalin Carrico spent years grinding away in academic obscurity. She came to America

• 1:07Ryan Holiday?

  with $900. Despite her hard work and brilliant theories, she never made more than $60,000 per year. She had to fight to keep her positions on countless occasions. And then suddenly, in 2020, her mRNA research was of paramount importance to the health and welfare of humanity. Her research directly led to the vaccines that have now saved hundreds of millions of lives from debilitating illness, long-term health problems, and death. And the reward for all this quiet struggle and persistence? Well, she was just snubbed for a Nobel Prize. Again, this is how it goes. It's stupid and unjust, but hardly a surprise. Still, her

• 1:51Ryan Holiday?

  husband told reporters a few months ago that we shouldn't feel too sorry for his wife, because she loved going to work every day. She wasn't motivated by awards or any other kind of tangible reward. She did it because it was the right thing to do, because it was her duty and her purpose. And so it went for Marcus Aurelius and Rutilius Rufus. Decency and a commitment to the common good? These weren't strategies for getting ahead. It was getting ahead, was the best way to live. For them was the only way to live. You cannot work for the external rewards because they may not come. Or worse, what does come will not be a reward at all.

• 2:34Ryan Holiday?

  Instead, do your work because it's right, because it's who you are. Because the unthinkable is even more unthinkable. Speaking of which, if this podcast upset you at all, don't send me an email. Don't be an idiot. If you're not going to get vaccinated, just keep it yourself. Please be safe, but don't shroud it in any sense of understanding of Stoicism. We are made for each other, the Stoics say. It's about how we're connected to each other. As Marx really said, "The fruit of this life is good character and acts for the common good." And he also mentions, and I've brought this up many times, during the Antonine Plague, he says, "There's two kinds of pestilence.

• 3:19Ryan Holiday?

  There's the one that can take your life and there's the one that can destroy your character." If your inclination is to send me an angry email or a bunch of misinformation or disinformation about COVID, well, I hate to break it to you. You have been infected with a different kind of virus. One that probably is harder to get rid of than COVID. I wish you the best. You don't need to be a fan anymore. Everyone else, be safe, be smart. Try to help your family members and friends do the right thing. And be well and be sane.