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Welcome to the Daily Stoke Podcast where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you find strength, insight, and wisdom every day life.

Each one of these passages is based on the 2000 year old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more you can visit us at DailyStoke.com.

A book isn't a mirror, it's a door. A couple of weeks ago we talked about Fran Lieboit's secret to being immensely rich.

It also happens to be a secret to empathy and understanding. There has been a big push recently for diversity and inclusion in books and television. This is important obviously because any system that excludes voices is an unjust one.

But we should also be careful in our pursuit as readers and consumers of art about people just like us.

As Fran explained as someone from a small town in New Jersey, someone who is expelled from one school and suspended from another, someone who worked jobs, scooping ice cream, driving taxis, cleaning apartments, she's thankful that she didn't see herself in books.

I mean, she says a book isn't supposed to be a mirror, it's supposed to be a door.

Isn't that what's special about meditations? We're not emperors, we don't have 14 children, we are not Romans, we don't lead massive armies, we didn't have to live through the Antonine plague.

Yet it's Marcus's specificity, his unique individual experience that makes him so universally relatable, he reveals in his writing that for all our differences we are in fact the same.

And when I was writing the boy who would be king, some of the early feedback from my friends, they questioned along these politically correct lines whether it was exclusionary to have a book about a boy who would be king.

But the book isn't about boys at all, it's about destiny, it's about becoming whoever you were meant to be.

They say if you only read books that everyone else is reading, you will only think what everyone else is thinking. If you look for mirrors, you'll only see yourself.

Instead we need to look for windows and doors, we want to learn from other people's experiences, we want to see the world through their eyes, and see ourselves in our destiny a little bit more clearly as a result.

And look, as Epic Tidus said, it's not just that you read, but what you read that counts. And I'd love for you to check out the boy who would be king, I'd love to introduce you to this timeless ageless story for all the aspiring leaders in your life.

I've got signed personalized copies in the Daily Stoke store at store.dailystoke.com. Also grab it on Amazon. I'm so proud of this book. Yes, it's about a boy who would be king, but it's really about all of us, all of us who are trying to become who we are meant to become in this life.

Boy, who would be king, check it out store.dailystoke.com. You buy it there. You'll get the audio book for free. Can't wait for you to read it.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoke early and add free on Amazon music. Download the Amazon music app today, or you can listen early and add free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts.

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