3760: Sangfroid: The Art of Being Cool Under Pressure (and Success) by Ryan Holiday on How to Be More Composed

Optimal Living Daily - Personal Development and Self-Improvement

Optimal Living Daily LLC

Education, Mental Health, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness

4.6 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 October 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 3760: Ryan Holiday explores the timeless virtue of sangfroid, the art of keeping calm under pressure, and how it has shaped the success of leaders, athletes, and creatives throughout history. By cultivating composure in moments of chaos, he shows how anyone can transform setbacks into strength and approach challenges with clarity and confidence. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://ryanholiday.net/sangfroid-art-cool-pressure-success/ Quotes to ponder: "Anyone can be cool in the calm. Anyone can be disciplined when things are going well. But being calm and disciplined in chaos? That’s true coolness." "This is what sangfroid means: cold blood. It’s the art of keeping your head while everyone else is losing theirs." "The person who can keep their cool when others cannot is a force to be reckoned with." Episode references: Letters from a Stoic: https://www.amazon.com/Letters-Stoic-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140442103 The Inner Citadel: https://www.amazon.com/Inner-Citadel-Meditations-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/0674007077 Meditations: https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-New-Translation-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/0812968255 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Optimal Living Daily.
0:03.4	Sang Freud, The Art of Being Cool Under Pressure and Success by Ryan Holiday of Ryan Holiday.net.
0:10.8	And I'm Justin Mollock, your very own personal narrator.
0:13.7	I read to you every single day of the year so that you don't have to go find blogs and articles
0:17.3	yourself.
0:18.2	I find the best authors online, get their permission, and simply read them
0:22.2	to you for free. And today's is no exception, a popular writer, and the host of the Daily Stoic
0:28.0	podcast, Ryan Holiday. So with that, let's get right to it and continue optimizing your life.
0:37.7	Sang Freud. The Art of Being Cool Under Pressure, Man's Success, by Ryan Holiday of
0:43.7	Ryan Holiday.net.
0:46.1	Lately it seems that whenever a technology startup is bought for billions, be it
0:51.4	Instagram, yammer, vibre, ways, Tumblr, or WhatsApp, financial analysts predict
0:58.5	another bubble in the making. We've had the 2008 recession, the tech bubble bursting in 2000,
1:05.8	and now Robert Schiller, author of Irrational Exuberance, is worried about the next bubble. With the threat of investment
1:12.2	bubbles bursting more frequently, how can you keep cool under fire and bridge the gap between
1:17.7	perception and reality in order to invest rationally? How do you stay out of the cycle that
1:23.5	everyone else seems to be stuck in? One answer is found in the great financial figures of the
1:29.4	past who lived through similar bust and boom cycles and see how they prospered through it all,
1:35.9	someone like John D. Rockefeller, the making of a titan. Rockefeller had barely begun his career
1:44.0	as a bookkeeper and investor in Cleveland,
1:46.6	Ohio, when the panic of 1857 struck, a massive national financial crisis that originated in
1:52.7	Ohio and hit Cleveland particularly hard. Just as he was finally getting the hang of things,
	...

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