Ryan Holiday (@RyanHoliday) is a strategist and writer. He dropped out of college at 19 to apprentice under Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power, and later served as the director of marketing for American Apparel. His company, Brass Check, has advised clients like Google, TASER, and Complex, as well as many prominent bestselling authors. Holiday has written four previous books, including The Obstacle Is the Way, which has been translated into 17 languages and has a cult following among NFL coaches, world-class athletes, TV personalities, political leaders, and others around the world. Ryan lives on a small ranch outside of Austin, Texas, and his latest book is Ego Is The Enemy. Ryan and I cover a lot in this conversation, including: Meltdowns and how Ryan handles them Workaholics Anonymous -- How it works, what worked for him, what didn't The tipping points for his last book, The Obstacle Is the Way External versus internal obstacles Sherman versus Grant leadership and "success" Howard Hughes versus Elon Musk Thinking of "first principles" Enjoy! Show notes and links for this episode can be found at www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast. This podcast is brought to you by Wealthfront. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive (in a good way) set-it-and-forget-it investing service led by technologists from places like Apple. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years and now has more than $2.5B under management. Why? Because you can get services previously limited to the ultra-wealthy and only pay pennies on the dollar for them, and it's all through smarter software instead of retail locations and bloated sales teams. Check out wealthfront.com/tim, take their risk assessment quiz, which only takes 2-5 minutes, and they'll show you -- for free -- exactly the portfolio they'd put you in. If you want to just take their advice and do it yourself, you can. Well worth a few minutes to explore: wealthfront.com/tim. This podcast is also brought to you by FreshBooks. FreshBooks is a bookkeeping software, which is used by a ton of the start-ups I advise and many of the contractors I work with. It is the easiest way to send invoices, get paid, track your time, and track your clients. FreshBooks tells you when your clients have viewed your invoices, helps you customize your invoices, track your hours, automatically organize your receipts, have late payment reminders sent automatically and much more. Right now you can get a free month of complete and unrestricted use. You do not need a credit card for the trial. To claim your free month, go to FreshBooks.com/Tim and enter “Tim” in the “how did you hear about us section.” ***If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!For show notes and past guests, please visit tim.blog/podcast.Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (“5-Bullet Friday”) at tim.blog/friday.For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.Interested in sponsoring the podcast? Visit tim.blog/sponsor and fill out the form.Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.Follow Tim:Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferrissFacebook: facebook.com/timferriss YouTube: youtube.com/timferrissPast guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, and many more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Tim Ferriss introduces his email newsletter, 5 Bullet Friday, which he sends out every Friday to millions of subscribers. The newsletter includes five bullet points that highlight the coolest things he has found that week, from apps and books to gadgets and self-experiments.
In this episode of the Tim Ferriss Show, Ryan Holiday, a strategist and writer, discusses the principles of stoicism and the ego. Ryan also talks about his career experiences and his latest book, "Ego is the Enemy."
In this podcast, Ryan Holiday talks about stoicism philosophy and how it has helped him in his career and personal life. He shares how two of his books - "The Obstacle is the Way" and "Ego is the Enemy" provide practical reminders for dealing with difficult situations and preventing oneself from making boneheaded decisions.
The speaker shares their experience of dealing with extreme career anxiety after an opportunity arose that threatened to upend their peaceful, satisfying career as a writer.
The speaker reflects on the dangerous choices they almost made when prioritizing their work over their personal life and mental health, and encourages listeners to consider the consequences of overworking.
Michael Lombardi, director of basketball for Knights and former special assistant for the New England Patriots, widely distributed the book 'Range' by David Epstein to the sports world after reading it and being impressed by its message.
Ben Burlingham discusses the success of highly focused companies that target a small demographic of customers. He emphasizes the importance of identifying and cultivating true fans in niche areas, even if the book or product does not have a generalized fame, as the opinion of a few thought leaders can matter the most.
This podcast discusses the biggest internal obstacle people face, which is ego, and how it can prevent one from accomplishing what they want or hollowing out what they do accomplish. The guest uses various examples to demonstrate how ego can ruin things or make difficult periods in life even harder, and suggests a rational and purpose-driven approach to success instead.
The story of Grant and Sherman highlights the difference between confidence and ego. While a confident person earns their achievements through hard work and knowledge, an ego can lead us to lose sight of our capabilities and needs, seeking to impress people who are already impressed with us, ultimately leading to a painful and unsatisfying life.
The podcast discusses how an out of control ego can lead to disastrous consequences on success, emphasizing the cases of Ulysses and Howard Hughes.
The podcast discusses the dynamics of famous people hiring authors or consultants for their projects, and how being honest might ruin the chances of further collaborations.
The anecdote of a coach teaching his team to properly lace their shoes illustrates the importance of attention to detail in preventing blisters, mistakes, and ultimately, failure.
The speaker emphasizes the risk of people who seek to gain profit by calling others bigots. He also discusses the importance of making decisions based on logical thinking over emotions and presuppositions.
In this conversation, the speakers discuss how individual self-regulation can be used as a tool to control the accusations of racism, sexism, and other -isms in the world. They express their fear that individuals and companies are slowly choking the life out of free speech in the United States, leading to a death of the First Amendment.
It is important to understand that sometimes smart people say dumb things and things can be much more complex than what is shown in sound bites and blog posts. Aiming at the right targets is crucial otherwise it can make people deaf, dumb and blind to pleas and messages, wasting resources and making life worse.
One way to implement Stoic practices is to do a no complaint experiment where you are not allowed to complain for 21 days, and every time you complain, you snap a rubber band on your wrist. You can use this method as a proactive operating system to make better decisions and address ego manifestations.
When we wrap our identity up in our work or material things, we become possessive and controlling, and our sense of self-worth becomes tied to things beyond our control. It's important to cultivate the practice of gratitude to keep our identity small and remain flexible and adaptive in the face of disruption.
The two separate buckets of things that one can control and cannot control can be tackled by working methodically and dispassionately on the things that can be controlled, cumulatively leading to bigger outcomes. Five Bullet Friday is a short email that includes interesting things found or pondered over during the week, such as new albums, gadgets, articles, and more.