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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.

Power doesn't corrupt. It reveals. There were not many good emperors in Rome. There have not been many good kings since.

In fact, there haven't been many good leaders ever. There is something about power that seems to bring out the worst in people. It seems to be a light that destroys the moths which are drawn to it.

All one has to do is read Soutonius' lives of the Caesars to see how this played out.

Josiah Osko, a professor of classics at Georgetown University, recently translated in addition to Soutonius entitled How to Be a Bad Emperer, which looks at some of the worst Roman emperors.

But one thing Osko questions is this famous adage that absolute power corrupts. When I talk to him, he said, power unmasks the true identity of leaders.

It brings to light weaknesses that were there all along but might have been overlooked. For Julius Caesar this was arrogance. For Tiberius, a willingness to indulge his proclivity for personal pleasure.

For Caligula, a fondness for cruelly taunting others. For Nero, an obsession with being the center of attention.

Passion rules many of us more than reason, he said. A truth academic historians prefer to ignore.

Indeed, that's really what's so impressive about Marcus Aurelis and what I tried to show in my new book The Boy Who Would Be King.

Marcus Aurelis was chosen for absolute power. And somehow it not only didn't corrupt, it made him better because of who he was, because of the work he had done in his younger years.

The reading and studying and seeking out good mentors, how were revealed what Marcus had driven long to cultivate? Good soul and a good heart.

So how will it go for you? For the people you are grooming for leadership in your company, for your kids. Have you put in the work necessary? Have you prioritized the right things so that if you're lucky to get what you want, you'll be good instead of a monster.

What will be revealed? The work you do today will answer. The work that Marcus Aurelis did early is what shaped him. It's what created the goodness that power was able to reveal.

And I tell that incredible story, one of the stories that inspires me more than anything else in my new book The Boy Who Would Be King, which you can grab in the Daily Stoke Store, get the audiobook for free. It's on Amazon as well.

But you can get signed personalized copies if there's someone in your life, a kid or a mentee who could really benefit from it. So check that out in the Daily Stoke Store at store. DailyStoke.com.

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 Wondering Plus in Apple podcasts.

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