Welcome to the Daily Dad podcast, where we provide one lesson every single day to help you with your most important job, being a parent.

I'm Ryan Holiday, and I draw these lessons from ancient philosophy, modern psychology, practical wisdom, and insights from

parents just like you all over the world. Thank you for listening, and we hope this helps.

They can still be successful. Yes, it's true. Many of the most successful artists and entrepreneurs and world leaders came from horrible circumstances. This adversity shaped and formed them, even fueled them to greatness. Does that mean that your child is somehow disadvantaged because you remain happily married,

because they have new shoes, because they go to a good school? Hardly. It's been suggested that

an unhappy childhood is necessary, the dancer and writer Agnes DeMille wrote in her biography

of Martha Graham. Possibly. Yet many childhoods are unhappy without producing anything

attractive. One almost certain result, being trouble in life. The reality is that successful people

come from all sorts of backgrounds. Franklin Delano Roosevelt had loving parents. Churchill did not.

They both reached the same heights, and though they both

struggled, as we've written to do well, they each sought to provide good, stable, and loving homes

for their children. Tom Brady came from a normal middle-class household, while Floyd Patterson did not.

Yet again, neither would have wanted to subject their child to needless adversity just to make them champions.

A happy childhood is the whole point of what we're trying to do.

So don't second guess yourself.

Their lives should be good.

But just remember, as we've said, good is not the same as easy.

And that's the idea of the new Daily Dad coin,

Lachter et Emergo. Your children's life should be good, not easy, let them struggle,

show them support, help them grow. It's a daily carry for me. I've got it sitting here right

on my desk, because you just loudly heard. It's an awesome new challenge going. Good reminder

for all parents. We can check that out at store.dailydad.com.

...