It’s Only After You’ve Lost Everything That You’re Free to Do Anything

"One day late in the fourth century BC, the Phoenician merchant Zeno set sail on the Mediterranean Sea with a cargo full of Tyrian purple dye. Prized by the wealthy and by royalty, who dressed themselves in clothes colored with it, the rare dye was painstakingly extracted by slaves from the blood of sea snails and dried in the sun until it was, as one ancient historian said, “worth its weight in silver.” This was Zeno’s family trade. They trafficked in one of the most valuable goods in the ancient world, and as it has always been for entrepreneurs, their business was on the line seemingly every day. On that fateful day, a day not unlike one you may have experienced, Zeno lost everything."Find out the rest of Zeno's story 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.

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  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.

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  It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything. On a fateful day, late in the 4th century B.C., a Phoenician merchant named Zeno set sail on the Mediterranean with a cargo full of Tyrian purple dye. Prized by the wealthy and by royalty who dressed themselves in purple clothes, the dye was painstakingly extracted by slaves from the blood of sea snails and dried in the sun until it was, according to one ancient historian, worth its weight in silver. Zeno's family trade was in this good, one of the most valuable goods in the ancient world, and as it was for many entrepreneurs, a business on the

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  line every day. And on that fateful day, on a day not unlike one you may have experienced, Zeno lost everything. We're not exactly sure what caused his shipwreck, but it devastated him financially, physically, and emotionally. It could have been the end of his story. The loss could have driven him to drink or suicide, or quiet, ordinary life. Instead, it set in motion the creation of one of the greatest intellectual and spiritual movements in history. "I made a prosperous voyage," Zeno later joked, "when I suffered shipwreck." Indeed, we are all richer for it. This story is worth telling and retelling for a reason. Maybe you just found out your husband is leaving you. Maybe you just got news that

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  an accountant has embezzled your hard-earned savings. Maybe the pandemic has taken someone you love. Maybe it's taken something, a job, a hobby, a way of living, from you, and you're hurting. Who wouldn't be? But destabilizing events like this are not entirely bad. They shake things up. They force... New changes, they ask us new questions. It's only after you've lost everything Tyler Durden says in Fight Club that you're free to do anything. Zeno was freed by his misfortune. Life picked him up and shook off his family traditions. It threw him ashore penniless and lost, but it also introduced him to philosophy. It put him on a path to greatness he could have never conceived of otherwise.

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  This, whatever it is for you, could be that, but if and only if you choose for it to be. Anyway, that story of Zeno is just one of the stories we tell in Lives of the Stoics. And check that out, the new book, Lives of the Stoics, Art of Living From Zeno to Marcus Aurelius. I just think Zeno is such a fascinating character, along with all the other Stoics we profile in the book. Check that out anywhere books are sold.