Not All Leaders Are Stoics, But All Stoics Are Leaders

“There was a famous exchange between the Stoic philosopher Musonius Rufus and the King of Syria. The king traveled to ask Musonius, ‘Is it appropriate for a leader to study philosophy?’”Ryan explains why leaders must study philosophy and constantly be striving to get better. The Daily Stoic Leadership Challenge is a masterclass in leadership with the cadence and rigor of a boot camp. It is also a live course, which means all participants will join the course together and move through together at the same pace to their own version of the same goal—to be a great leader. Registration is now officially open over at dailystoic.com/leadershipchallenge. Registration will close on Saturday, July 31st at midnight CST. Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow 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.

• 0:04Ryan 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.

• 0:26Ryan Holiday?

  Not all leaders are Stoics, but all Stoics are leaders. There was a famous exchange between the Stoic philosopher Musonius Rufus and the king of Syria. The king traveled to ask Musonius, "Is it appropriate for a leader to study philosophy?" "Not only is it appropriate," Musonius said, "but no one, but for no one, is it more appropriate." "What is the leader's duty?" Musonius asked, and then answered, "To be able to protect and benefit his people." And you'll notice that this is nearly verbatim, the simple definition of what it means to be a leader that we talked about on Wednesday, that leaders make people better. Musonius continued that to make people better,

• 1:11Ryan Holiday?

  you have to know what is good for them and what is bad, what is helpful to them and what is harmful, what is beneficial to them and what is detrimental. And making these distinctions, he says, "is the job of no one other than the philosopher. A philosopher constantly occupies himself with this very question and has made it his art to know what leads people to happiness or unhappiness. When you are making others better," as we said the other day, "you are leading. And when you are acting like a Stoic," as Musonius is saying to the king, "you are making others better." In other words, leaders are Stoics and Stoics are leaders. Again and again, we see the Stoics making it their art to protect and benefit the people.

• 1:53Ryan Holiday?

  It's Cato fighting to save the Roman Republic and protect the old ways. It's Stockdale nearly committing suicide because he knew it would improve the circumstances for his fellow PODs. It's General Mattis taking over guard duty on Christmas so a soldier could be home with his family. It's Marcus Aurelius during the Antonine Plague deciding to sell off the palace furnishings to help those in need. Socrates called philosophy "the royal discipline," Musonius says as his exchange with the king comes to a close, "because the person who takes it up immediately becomes a leader." And you can't really avoid this. Taking up philosophy means to take up the questions

• 2:35Ryan Holiday?

  of leadership. It means assuming the duties of a leader. Is it appropriate, then, for you to study leadership? Yes. In fact, it is the most important thing you should be studying, and it's something you should start studying right now for the rest of your life.

• 2:57Ryan Holiday?

  Hey, it's Ryan. There's just a couple more days to sign up for the Daily Stoic Leadership Challenge. It closes here on Saturday, July 31 at midnight Central Time. It's not only our biggest, but it is our best course that we've done. It's the first time we're running it. It's got all sorts of moving pieces that our previous courses haven't had, including these weekly deep dives with a two-star general in the Air Force, a GM of a sports dynasty, real leaders in real positions whose experience is I can't wait to share with you. I'm excited to talk to them. I'm excited for you to talk to them. This is going to be a great course. The Daily Stoic Leadership Challenge: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Leaders is open now. It closes Saturday, July 31 at midnight Central Time, so do not miss it.

• 3:42Ryan Holiday?

  The course begins on Sunday, August 1. Really excited. Can't wait to have you. You can sign up at dailystoic.com/leadershipchallenge. And remember, Daily Stoic Life members get this course and all the courses for free. So if you were thinking about signing up for Daily Stoic Life, this is your chance to basically get all the value. Sign up, dailystoic.com/leadershipchallenge, or of course, dailystoiclife.com.