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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.

There have always been haters, and there always will be. Given how terrible most of the Roman

emperors were, you might think that Marcus Aurelius was universally loved. Of course, this

was not true. Plenty of people hated him, plenty of people thought they should be in charge

and not him. In fact, one of his best friends betrays him in a terrible coup. But even now

centuries later, he's overlooked or even outright criticized as a recent interview with the

historian Mary Beard illustrates. Do you think this got to Marcus Aurelius? Would it

get to him today if he was around to see what people thought of him? Absolutely not. In

meditations, he writes that one of the realities of leadership is that you earn a bad reputation

by good deeds, no matter who you are or what you do, you'll have haters. If you don't

want any, then it's best not to try anything, to do anything, or be worth talking about

it all. There are always going to be people who dislike you, who criticize you, who attack

you. And for the most part, these reasons will have nothing to do with you and everything

to do with those leveling the attacks. But unfortunately, many people waste their time

stressing about fighting against and trying to change those opinions, which, as always,

remain firmly outside of our control. We have to resist that impulse. We have to be like

Marcus Aurelius. We have to focus on what we control. We have to do the right thing.

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