Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key stoic virtues,

courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world.

Would it really be different? If you were in their position, if you had their power, if the decision fell to you,

you'd do it right. You would not be such a coward. You would not be so weak. You would not be driven

to excess. You would not be selfish. You would do it right. Sitting on the outside, this is all

easy to think. But as the lyrics to the song, A Satisfied Mind go,

If I had money, whoa, the lyrics to the song A Satisfied Mind go.

The problem is that we know how it actually goes.

Power corrupts, wealth entitles, success distracts, people make excuses. People fall prey to the same traps,

the ones that have existed since the days of Seneca and Marcus Aurelius, and indeed for all time.

We must understand that success, as the great Tennessee Williams put it, is a kind of catastrophe.

It's something to be looked at suspiciously, something that will screw up your compass. The Stoics believe that we had to train in virtue to prepare for adversity,

sure, but also for the fortunate situations in which we get our way, because this is precisely

when we are most tempted and most under strain. All of a sudden those ideals have a big price tag attached. All

of a sudden, there are fewer constraints upon us. And just like in adversity, we will find in

these moments that our training is being put to the test. Did we really mean what we said? Are

these values really important to us? Do we have the strength that Marx Reelius did, for instance, to remain

good when we don't actually have to be? Can we be different? Or will we, as the song goes,

be one of the nine out of ten who show themselves to have been all talk? By the way, that's

something we talk about in our course, the wealthy Stilic, like how to actually be wealthy, however much money you happen to make. Like, what did the Stoics think about having money, how to spend it, how to think about it, what are some of the habits and practices to help you get it to? I think it's a great course, not always totally understood by some of people who don't like what we do here at Daily Stoke, but I think you'll like it. And by the way, if you're a Daily Stoic Life member, you get it for free.

So Daily Stokelif.com for that, or you can check out The Wealthy Stoic at Daily Stoic.com

slash wealthy. And I'll link to it in today's show notes.

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