Are You Really That Special?

“You’ve been reading for years now. You’ve been studying your Stoicism. You’ve been keeping up with your morning journals, doing your evening review. So when does this all culminate and coalesce into wisdom? When are you good? Never. The answer is never. “Until when is a person obligated to study Torah?” Maimonides once asked. “Until the day of one’s death.””Ryan explains why the pursuit of wisdom is never ending, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast. Pre-order The Boy Who Would Be King, our newest release at Daily Stoic, written by Ryan Holiday in the depths of the pandemic (not unlike the one Marcus ruled through), this new beautifully crafted book is available for preorder now. As a special bonus, if you order this book before March 9th, 2021, you’ll get a FREE audiobook version as well. Go to dailystoic.com/king to pre-order now and you’ll automatically get the free book.***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.

• 0:04Speaker 00

  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.

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  Are you really that special? It must have been pretty surreal to be Marcus Aurelius. You grow up as a regular kid, and then one day you're emperor. Suddenly, you have the power to deify your adopted stepfather. You can make this human being you knew and loved into a god. Does having the power to make someone a god, as Marcus also did for his wife, mean that you are a god? Certainly, many Romans thought so. It's the kind of power that can go to your head. And that's what's so remarkable about Marcus Aurelius. He seemed to actively work to make sure that that didn't happen. He talked about resisting the draw of imperialization. He practiced those contemptuous expressions that were designed to make the important trappings of power

• 1:09Speaker 00

  seem insignificant. This cloak, he said, is just a regular cloak dyed with shellfish blood. That's how the Romans made the color purple. Look at how few people remember the names of the previous emperors, he points out. Think about how quickly you will be forgotten. This was the right thing to do, because, yes, the emperors were famous. Yes, they held enormous power and wealth. But were they really that special? At a quincum, the Roman camp where Marcus Aurelius wrote large chunks of meditations, archaeologists have uncovered a larger-than-life limestone statue of an emperor in a toga. At first glance, it looks like the head was broken off. But a closer inspection reveals that the head was designed to be replaceable. The statue was part of a shrine for the cult of the emperor,

• 1:54Speaker 00

  so they wanted to be able to swap the head out each time a new one took the throne. That would humble you a bit, wouldn't it? Sure, you're special now, but not forever, not special enough to carve a permanent statue for, anyway. We should realize that we're all placeholders, like Marcus. Sure, we might have the fancy office now, but eventually, someone else will occupy it. Eventually, the business will close up shop, too, and they will tear down the building and turn it into a parking lot. Sure, you're the hot new artist or the trendiest influencer of the moment, but someone younger, someone hungrier, is coming right behind you. Fortunes tend to last no more than a couple generations. So yeah, you're rich now, but in a couple of years, it will all be gone. That's just life. We are all ephemeral in the big picture.

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  It's not that knowing this makes everything worthless. It just means that nothing is worth inflating your ego about. Nothing justifies thinking you are better or more important than other people. We're all just passing through.

• 2:53Speaker 00

  For the last year, I've been hard at work on my newest book, A Way to Tell the Incredible Stoic of the Life of Marcus Aurelius. Two thousand years ago, Marcus Aurelius was plucked from obscurity to become the emperor of Rome. What he did, who he was, what he learned, something we can all learn from. And now that book is available in an illustrated form told for all ages. It's called The Boy Who Would Be King. It's by me, Ryan Holiday. I wrote it in the depths of the pandemic, not unlike the one Marcus Aurelius lived through, the Antonine Plague. And this beautifully handcrafted book, which I am so proud of, is available for preorder now. It's 100 pages, published entirely by me and my company, and it's printed here in the United States.

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  And it has some amazing color illustrations from the great Victor Uhas. And as a special bonus, if you order the book now or before March 9th, 2021, I'll give you the audiobook for free. I went all out recording this awesome audiobook. I can't wait for you to see it. We have a bunch of different voiceover actors. There's even a version of me reading it with my kids. Just check it out at store.dailystoic.com or go to dailystoic.com/king. I can't wait for you to read this awesome, timeless fable for all ages. I know it'll make a great gift, and I know you and your family will get a lot out of it. So check it out. The Boy Who Would Be King, available for preorder now.