| "This thing in front of you. This issue. This obstacle--this frustrating, unfortunate, unexpected problem...What if it wasn't so bad?" - Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is the Way * * * |
Beloved by pro athletes, rap artists, military personnel, and other top performers, Ryan Holiday's The Obstacle is the Way is one hell of a gut-punch read. Robert Greene, author of The 48 laws of Power, sums it up best I think on the back cover: "A book for the bedside of every future—and current—leader in the world."
Blending ancient Stoic philosophy via Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus with condensed, historical case studies of successful men and women, Obstacle lays the foundations for developing a resilience to the daily challenges we must face and overcome. Organized into three parts — Perception, Action, & Will — bite-sized, easily consumable chapters, and blunt, clear language, I still find myself returning to certain passages from time to time for inspiration and motivation.
I also had the opportunity to interview Ryan on behalf of Huckberry a few years back on the book's success and core ideas. I'm also a big fan of four other books by Ryan:
Blending ancient Stoic philosophy via Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus with condensed, historical case studies of successful men and women, Obstacle lays the foundations for developing a resilience to the daily challenges we must face and overcome. Organized into three parts — Perception, Action, & Will — bite-sized, easily consumable chapters, and blunt, clear language, I still find myself returning to certain passages from time to time for inspiration and motivation.
I also had the opportunity to interview Ryan on behalf of Huckberry a few years back on the book's success and core ideas. I'm also a big fan of four other books by Ryan:
- Trust Me, I'm Lying — part confession, part how-to, a dark journey through our fragile and chaotic media landscape.
- Perennial Seller — a concise, concrete, four-step sketch for creatives on how to create work that stands the test of time and achieve long(er) relevance and sales.
- Conspiracy — an instructive and powerful narrative of Peter Thiel's near-decade-long, secret plot to legally destroy Gawker Media.
- Growth Hacker Marketing — A 'primer' on the lucrative mindset of marrying cheap, scalable technologies with human, experiential marketing.
[JG]
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
| Ryan Holiday is a bestselling author of books on marketing, Stoic philosophy, American culture, and the human condition. His work has been translated into twenty languages and appeared in the Columbia Journalism Review, Fast Company, The New York Observer, and others. Website |
| I first encountered Ryan by way of the Chase Jarvis Live show in 2012, and thanks to him discovered some other incredible creatives, including bestselling author Robert Greene, CEO of Breather Julian Smith, human guinea pig Tim Ferriss. |
| "It's time you understood that the wold is telling you something with each and every failure and action. It's feedback--giving you precise instructions on how to improve, it's trying to wake you up from your cluelessness. It's trying to teach you something...Failure shows us the way--by showing us what isn't the way." - Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is the Way * * * |
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