Always Think About What Is Above You

"It’s easy for power to go to your head. You see all the people that work for you and think you’re important. You fill out that online survey and find out that, hey, for what you make and where you live, you’re in the 1% or 10% or top 50% of earners. When you look at who is beneath you, who you’re doing better than, ego creeps in. Being someone’s 'superior'—whether that’s a superior officer or just a superior salesman—makes us feel superior."Find out how to defeat that impulse in 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 @DailyStoic: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.

• 0:06Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to The Daily Stoic, where each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good 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.

• 0:29Ryan Holiday?

  Always think about what is above you. It's easy for power to go to your head. You see all the people that work for you and think you're important. You fill out that online survey and find out that, hey, for what I make and where I live, I'm in the 1% or the 10% or the top 50% of earners. When you look at who is beneath you, who you're doing better than, ego creeps in. Being someone superior, whether that's a superior officer or just a superior salesman, it makes us feel superior. The writer Plutarch reminds all leaders that they must check against this impulse. "You are a governor," he writes, "but you yourself are also governed. You lead a city that is subject to the proconsul,

• 1:12Ryan Holiday?

  who is the representative of Caesar. You must not think too highly of or place too much trust in your crown, since you can see the proconsul's boots above your head." What was so impressive about Marcus Aurelius was that even though he was the head of a powerful empire, he sought actively to look for what was above him, where the limits of his authorities were. By that, he didn't just mean death, though he wrote about the humbling, equalizing effects of mortality, too. "He was one of the first emperors to defer to the senate. He never demanded funds, only requested them. My family owns nothing," he said, "not even this house we live in. It belongs to you, the people."

• 1:54Ryan Holiday?

  After he was named Hadrian's heir, he still submitted to his philosophy teachers, choosing to visit them rather than make them come to him, a sign that he still believed he was beneath them. So, when you're reflecting on whatever power or prestige you've accumulated, try to think of this example. If you're a head coach, remember that you can be fired by the athletic director and the president of the university. If you're a cop, that the chief can bust you down a rank or suspend you. A lawyer, that the bar determines your ability to practice. Even the president stands for reelection and all tyrants answer to the people eventually. Humility is key to keeping you working hard, to keeping you honest, to keeping perspective.

• 2:37Ryan Holiday?

  Ego, well, as you know, that's the enemy. If you like the podcast that we do here and you want to get it via email every morning, you can sign up at dailystoic.com/email.