Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast. On Friday, we do double duty, not just reading our

daily meditation, but also reading a passage from the Daily Stoic. My book, 366 Meditations

on Wisdom, Perseverance in the Art of Living, which I wrote with my wonderful collaborator,

translator, and literary agent, Stephen Hanselman. So today, we'll give you a quick meditation

from the Stoics with some analysis from me, and then we'll send you out into the world

to turn these words into works.

In addition to that old adage about death and taxes, the Stoics believed that there was

one other fact of existence that no one could escape from. It comes to us from Herocletus,

one of Marcus Aurelius's favorites, and it's an immutable reality of life and leadership.

Character is fate. Determines our destiny. Just a quick glimpse around the world, and

it history confirms this is true. Lires and cheats eventually destroy themselves, the corrupt

overreach, the ignorant make fatal self-inflicted mistakes, the egotistical ignore the warnings

that could save them and data that challenges them. The selfish end up isolated and alone,

even if they're surrounded by riches and fame. The robbers perverts, killers, and tyrants

that Marcus Aurelius wrote about always end up in a hell of their own making. It's a

law as true as gravity. Bad character might drive someone into a position of leadership

because of their ambition, because of their ruthlessness or their shamelessness, but

eventually, inevitably, this supposed strength is in Achilles heel when it comes to actually

doing the job. Who trust them? Who actually wants to work with them? What kind of culture

develops around them? How can they learn? How can they know where the landmines are?

If you want to know why things are the way they are right now in business and politics

everywhere, it's because character is fate. For too long, we have ignored the predictive

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