It’s Always Going To Be One-Sided

0:00My advice for entrepreneurs is definitely to level up with Shopify. The platform is just never a worry. Like, I have so many worries, but the platform is never one. I feel like Shopify really thinks about how they can optimize. It just always feels very ahead of the curve. Everything is just super easy to connect and link. They really know what we need. Time and money that is saved. I can spend on other things and on growth. Start your free trial at Shopify.com.

0:30Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast. designed to help bring those four key stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom, into the real world. It's always going to be one-sided. You think this is new? That the other side lies? That the other side doesn't play fair? That the cheaters seem to get ahead? Talk to Cato, who lived in a time where elections were literally bought and sold by huge bribes. Talk to Rutilius Rufus, whose reward for not being corrupt, as the governor of Asia, was being brought up on charges of corruption and convicted. It's always been a dilemma. Why should I be honest when no one else seems to be?

1:14Why should I play by the rules when others are visibly breaking them? Why should I be respectful or kind or fair when nobody else is? Well, the stoic answer here is twofold. One, because that's the only thing you control. And two, because you prove them right when you discard your principles. In fact, as Mark Srelius said in meditations, this is really the only way we can be harmed. We let the actions of others affect our character. This thing that you signed up for, being a person of virtue, was never promised to you as a path to success. No one ever said it was the ideal strategy for politics or business.

1:51No one ever said it was the better end of the bargain. But you know what it is? It's a way to live with yourself. It's a way to keep yourself from being sucked in and degraded the way that a more flexible person would be. It's a way to be good, even in bad times. As I say in Right Thing Right Now, being honest, holding yourself to account, can hold you back, sure. But it also holds you back from shame. Honesty prevents you from having to keep secrets or hoping you don't get exposed. We need more Cato's. We need more Rutilius Rufus's. We need you to be you, which is to say good and honest and principled, committed, willing to do the right thing, even when the right thing is the losing thing.

2:37And by the way, if you want a signed edition of Right Thing Right Now or any of the books in the Virtue series, we've got them on sale for the holidays. Just go over to store.dailystoic.com and grab it, and we'll link to it in today's show notes.

2:56Thank you.