Your Saturday Stoic Review — Week of March 28 - April 3

​ ​ PASSAGE OF THE WEEK: Forget what your books and budgets say. Forget what's on the deed. If you really want to own something, own this moment in front of you. Own what you're doing. Be present. Be here now. Be still. — This Is How To Own Everything (Listen) YOUTUBE TAKEAWAY OF THE WEEK: ​ In one of the most watched videos on the Daily Stoic YouTube Channel this week, Ryan Holiday tells 7 of the best Stoic stories, each with a lesson that will guide through life. He tells, for instance, the story of Thomas Edison returning home early one evening from his work to have dinner with his family. As he finished eating, a man came rushing into his house with urgent news: A fire had broken out at Edison's research and production campus a few miles away. Here's Ryan: Edison shows up on the scene, and he sees his life's work up in flames. His son is standing there shell-shocked. And what does Edison say? Edison says, "go get your mother and all her friends. They'll never see a fire like this again." People thought he lost his mind. But he goes on to repeat a line from a [Rudyard] Kipling poem about triumph and disaster—treat those two imposters just the same. What Edison is realizing, as a Stoic does, is that some things are just out of our control. We can't change them. No amount of whining or complaining or weeping is going to affect them. But we can control how we respond. And that's what Edison does. He tells a reporter the next day, "I've been through stuff like this before," he says "it prevents an old man from getting bored." And he starts rebuilding…In six weeks, it's partially back up and running. In six months, it's fully operational. And the third act of Edison's life is rebuilding after this disaster. PODCAST TAKEAWAY OF THE WEEK: ​ On the Daily Stoic podcast this week, Ryan interviewed Thomas Chatterton Williams, an American culture critic and is the author of two memoirs: Self-Portrait in Black and White: Unlearning Race and Losing My Cool: How a Father's Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip-Hop Culture. The two talked about how one develops a love of reading, the importance of embracing contradicting ideas, Thomas' relationship with his father and their mutual belief in the purpose of philosophy: My dad was interested in the questions we're talking about: how does a man die with dignity? How does a man live with dignity? How does a woman live with dignity in situations that are impossibly undignified? This is what he thinks philosophy helps us with. And to take it a step further, my dad would say, it's not credentials that make you a philosopher, it's not that you majored in philosophy. It's how you're thinking. It's if you definite yourself as a philosopher, if you're addressing yourself to these questions. If you are, no one else can certify you. WHAT RYAN HOLIDAY IS READING: "Great gifts and achievements early in life are simply not an insurance policy against suffering later on. On the contrary, studies show that people who have chased power and achievement in their professional lives tend to be unhappier after retirement than people who did not…Humans simply aren't wired to enjoy an achievement long past. It is as if we were on a moving treadmill; satisfaction from success lasts but an instant. We can't stop to enjoy it; if we do, we zip off the back of the treadmill and wipe out. So we run and run, hoping that the next success, greater than the last, will bring the enduring satisfaction we crave." ​From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life (signed copies available here) by Arthur Brooks YOUR STOIC WEEKEND REMINDER: Don't look outside yourself for approval. We all want to be liked. We want the acceptance of our peers. We want to be chosen. We want the stamp of approval—from the critics, from the crowd, from the market. This makes sense…except it doesn't. Is it not true that most people are not very bright, hold regressive or alarming opinions, and generally follow the herd? And yet somehow we think it's vindication when they love us? It's nonsense. It's pretty strange how much we value the respect of people we don't respect…and the lengths we're willing to go to get it. "If you are ever tempted to look for outside approval," Epictetus said, "realize that you have compromised your integrity. If you need a witness, be your own." (For more Stoic don'ts, watch this video!) THIS WEEK'S BEST SOCIAL MEDIA POST: ​ EMAIL OF THE WEEK: ​Can You Be a Glow Worm? (Listen) ​Unsubscribe | Update your profile | 906 Main Street #274, Bastrop, Texas 78602