It’s a Team Sport

0:00Ryan Holiday: The Painted Porch at my bookstore here in Bastrop, Texas has a porch on the back and it is painted. We actually just repainted it and then we were sort of trying to fix it up a little bit. It's been sort of an afterthought but we're trying to make it a little bit nicer and we bought some new outdoor furniture, some chairs, a rug, some string lights, you know just some stuff that the employees and I myself can hang out on. You know this is the best time of year in Texas. It's cool and nice. days are still long but not so long anyways where did we get all the furniture we got it from wayfair outdoor seating grills major appliances storage patio lights rugs decor wayfair is your one stop shop for home installation and assembly services are available for a truly seamless experience wayfair deals with the hard parts so you don't have to with over 20 million five-star reviews you can hear from real customers before you buy patio season is here and these deals won't last, head over to Wayfair.com right now to get your outdoor space ready for way less.

1:01Ryan Holiday: W-A-Y-F-A-I-R.com. Wayfair, every style, every home. Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world.

1:20Ryan Holiday: It's a team sport. Why do they go along with it? Why don't they stand up? Why are they refusing to use their considerable power or resources? Well, what's everyone else doing? If everyone else in your class is turning a blind eye to some abuse or malpractice, you're much more likely to do the same. If everyone else is publicly saying one thing or not saying one thing, but speaking much differently in private, it's likely that you too will be silent. That's why we're in the mess we're in right now. That's why the headlines about so many of these unspeakable tragedies keep rolling out. Nobody else was speaking up, so nobody else did.

2:01Ryan Holiday: Courage, it is increasingly clear, is a team sport. It's harder to be courageous when all you see are examples of cowardice. Well, the Stoics can help us with this, because we come from a long tradition of people who did speak up, who weren't cowards, who were fine to stand alone, who put their reputations and lives on the line to do what was right. Cato, Rutilius Rufus, Helvidius, Thrasius, Stockdale, these are not just powerful examples. They are our peers. They are calling to us. They are reminding us. In fact, not everyone does go along with the crowd. There are, and always have been, brave people who said, no, not in my name, who said, I'm going to do what I can to stop this, who said, everyone should see this.

2:47Ryan Holiday: Why are others refusing? We can only speculate. But us, we can choose to find a different inspiration, to follow a different path, and most important, to help set one for others. And that's what Courage is Calling is all about. It's the first book in the Stoic Virtue series, followed by Discipline is Destiny, Right Thing Right Now, Wisdom Takes Work. All of these virtues are what we need in this moment. It's why I spent the last six plus years writing this series. They're all coming out as a box set here very soon, but if you want signed copies, just go over to store.dailystoic.com. Grab whichever one you want to start with, although I think these days we certainly use more courage, so it's not a bad place to start.

3:41Thank you.