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The Obstacle Is the Way
- The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph
- Narrated by: Ryan Holiday
- Length: 4 hrs and 38 mins
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Publisher's Summary
#1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller
The Obstacle is the Way has become a cult classic, beloved by men and women around the world who apply its wisdom to become more successful at whatever they do.
Its many fans include a former governor and movie star (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a hip hop icon (LL Cool J), an Irish tennis pro (James McGee), an NBC sportscaster (Michele Tafoya), and the coaches and players of winning teams like the New England Patriots, Seattle Seahawks, Chicago Cubs, and University of Texas men’s basketball team.
The book draws its inspiration from stoicism, the ancient Greek philosophy of enduring pain or adversity with perseverance and resilience. Stoics focus on the things they can control, let go of everything else, and turn every new obstacle into an opportunity to get better, stronger, tougher. As Marcus Aurelius put it nearly 2000 years ago: “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
Ryan Holiday shows us how some of the most successful people in history—from John D. Rockefeller to Amelia Earhart to Ulysses S. Grant to Steve Jobs—have applied stoicism to overcome difficult or even impossible situations. Their embrace of these principles ultimately mattered more than their natural intelligence, talents, or luck.
If you’re feeling frustrated, demoralized, or stuck in a rut, this book can help you turn your problems into your biggest advantages. And along the way it will inspire you with dozens of true stories of the greats from every age and era.
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All great leaders, thinkers, artists, athletes, and visionaries share one indelible quality. It enables them to conquer their tempers. To avoid distraction and discover great insights. To achieve happiness and do the right thing. Ryan Holiday calls it stillness - to be steady while the world spins around you. In this book, he outlines a path for achieving this ancient, but urgently necessary way of living.
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An easy listening that makes some good points
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Almost every religion, spiritual practice, philosophy and person grapples with fear. The most repeated phrase in the Bible is “Be not afraid.” The ancient Greeks spoke of phobos, panic and terror. It is natural to feel fear, the Stoics believed, but it cannot rule you. Courage, then, is the ability to rise above fear, to do what’s right, to do what’s needed, to do what is true. And so it rests at the heart of the works of Marcus Aurelius, Aristotle, and CS Lewis, alongside temperance, justice, and wisdom.
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Stay in your lane, Ryan.
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For the ancients, everything worth pursuing in life flowed from a strong sense of justice—or one’s commitment to doing the right thing, no matter how difficult. In order to be courageous, wise, and self-disciplined, one must begin with justice. The influence of the modern world often tells us that acting justly is optional. Holiday argues that that’s simply untrue—and the fact that so few people today have the strength to stand by their convictions explains much about why we’re so unhappy.
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A very difficult book to write
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The Daily Stoic
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Why have history's greatest minds - from George Washington to Frederick the Great to Ralph Waldo Emerson along with today's top performers, from Super Bowl-winning football coaches to CEOs and celebrities - embraced the wisdom of the ancient Stoics? Because they realize that the most valuable wisdom is timeless and that philosophy is for living a better life, not a classroom exercise. The Daily Stoic offers a daily devotional of Stoic insights and exercises, featuring all-new translations.
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don't get the audible version
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From the best-selling authors of The Daily Stoic comes an inspiring guide to the lives of the Stoics, and what the ancients can teach us about happiness, success, resilience, and virtue. In Lives of the Stoics, Holiday and Hanselman present the fascinating lives of the men and women who strove to live by the timeless Stoic virtues of Courage. Justice. Temperance. Wisdom. Organized in digestible, mini-biographies of all the well-known - and not so well-known - Stoics, this book vividly brings home what Stoicism was like for the people who loved it and lived it.
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A very difficult book to write
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The narrator ruins this book for me
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Becoming a parent is more than just a biological process—it’s a lifelong commitment to sacrifice, service, and most importantly, love. It’s a challenge to get up every day and put your kids first. You will experience moments of heroic compassion and humiliating failure, sometimes within the same day. But you don’t have to do it alone. From Ryan Holiday, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the smash hit The Daily Stoic, The Daily Dad provides 366 timeless meditations on parenting in a few manageable paragraphs a day—useful for even the most sleep deprived new parent.
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Terrific daily meditation
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One of the most significant books ever written by a head of state, the Meditations are a collection of philosophical thoughts by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121 - 180 ce). Covering issues such as duty, forgiveness, brotherhood, strength in adversity and the best way to approach life and death, the Meditations have inspired thinkers, poets and politicians since their first publication more than 500 years ago. Today, the book stands as one of the great guides and companions - a cornerstone of Western thought.
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Listed dozens of times
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Ugh- Blowhard doing blowhard
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Since bestselling author Ryan Holiday introduced Stoicism to the world with The Obstacle Is the Way in 2014, this simple but powerful philosophy for life has taken the world by storm. This brilliant and engaging book is an invaluable source of wisdom for anyone who wants to become more successful at what they do, whether you’re a student, a parent, a professional athlete, or a world leader. Now, Ryan Holiday has updated and expanded this modern classic with a new introduction and new content featuring a diverse set of inspiring characters.
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communication
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Written in Greek by an intellectual Roman emperor without any intention of publication, the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius offer a wide range of fascinating spiritual reflections and exercises developed as the leader struggled to understand himself and make sense of the universe. Spanning from doubt and despair to conviction and exaltation, they cover such diverse topics as the question of virtue, human rationality, the nature of the gods and Aurelius's own emotions.
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Wisdom of ages. Similar to St. Paul's writing.
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In Mastery, Robert Greene's fifth book, he mines the biographies of great historical figures for clues about gaining control over our own lives and destinies. Picking up where The 48 Laws of Power left off, Greene culls years of research and original interviews to blend historical anecdote and psychological insight, distilling the universal ingredients of the world's masters.
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Too much repetition in the story
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You’ve seen it all before. A malicious online rumor costs a company millions. A political sideshow derails the national news cycle and destroys a candidate. Some product or celebrity zooms from total obscurity to viral sensation. What you don’t know is that someone is responsible for all this. Usually, someone like me. I’m a media manipulator. In a world where blogs control and distort the news, my job is to control blogs - as much as any one person can.
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Great eye opening book
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How to Think Like a Roman Emperor
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Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius was the final famous Stoic philosopher of the ancient world. The Meditations, his personal journal, survives to this day as one of the most loved self-help and spiritual classics of all time. In How to Think Like a Roman Emperor, psychotherapist Donald Robertson weaves stories of Marcus’s life from the Roman histories together with explanations of Stoicism—its philosophy and its psychology—to enlighten today’s listeners. He discusses Stoic techniques for coping with everyday problems, from irrational fears and bad habits to anger, pain, and illness.
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You'll enjoy it. Promise.
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Written by: Donald J. Robertson
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Coexisting but conflicting needs create self-sabotaging behaviors. This is why we resist efforts to change, often until they feel completely futile. But by extracting crucial insight from our most damaging habits, building emotional intelligence by better understanding our brains and bodies, releasing past experiences at a cellular level, and learning to act as our highest potential future selves, we can step out of our own way and into our potential.
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Perfect!!!!
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Extreme Ownership
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An updated edition of the blockbuster best-selling leadership book that took America and the world by storm, two US Navy SEAL officers who led the most highly decorated special operations unit of the Iraq War demonstrate how to apply powerful leadership principles from the battlefield to business and life.
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principles are good
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Conspiracy
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In 2007, a short blogpost by Gawker Media outed PayPal founder and billionaire investor Peter Thiel as gay. Thiel's sexuality had been known to close friends and family, but he didn't consider himself a public figure, and believed the information was private. This post would be the casus belli for a meticulously plotted conspiracy that would end nearly a decade later with a $140 million dollar judgment against Gawker and its bankruptcy. Only later would the world learn that Gawker's demise was not incidental - it had been masterminded by Thiel.
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Ryan. Talks. Like. This.
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What the critics say
“The book on stoicism that’s taking the NFL by storm.”–Sports Illustrated
"The best one I've read. Ryan Holiday is brilliant. If I had read The Obstacle Is the Way sooner, a few things might have been different."–Rory McIlroy, 2x PGA Champion
“Follow these precepts and you will revolutionize your life. Read this book!”—Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art and Gates of Fire
What listeners say about The Obstacle Is the Way
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 2023-08-15
Changes the lens through which you see the world
Applying the book's underlying principles will reframe how you evaluate difficulty in your life – big things and small things alike. You won't see things as good or bad anymore, only good and the opportunity for good.
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- Nicole
- 2023-10-28
Loved every minute of it!
A must read for everyone, especially those who feel they’ve been dealt a bad hand.
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- Kaz
- 2023-04-05
Obstacles are the way!
I enjoyed the realness of the book. I found the book to be honest and rewarding. Would highly recommend to those who are going through change. 10/10
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- Brett Archibald
- 2023-08-25
Great book
I really found this book a forward pressing look at whatever happens in life.
Would recommend this for anyone.
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- Raphael
- 2024-07-02
Perspective
It’s well narrated & thought out.
I enjoyed it. Listened to it during a difficult time in my life, it helped me understand and put things into perspective.
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- Amazon Customer
- 2024-06-01
Good, but too American
My goodness, every example he gives is so American-centric. Steve Jobs this, Steve Jobs that. Rockefeller, Tommy John, Kennedy, etc. etc. I thought that cosmopolitanism was a key tenant of Stoicism. The author should expand his horizons a bit. Maybe this was due to editor pressures, but the author doesn't give the impression that he knows much about the world beyond America.
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- RoadRunner39
- 2023-08-20
Opportunity at Every Turn
Life will always present us with opportunities to shy away or to rise to the occasion. At the end of the day we all can rise to the occasion; this book, I believe taps into that way of thinking.
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- Patricia
- 2023-03-11
Spectacular job Ryan
Out of my 88 books and counting this year this is a favourite. For a young (ish?) author I’m so impressed. Seriously Ryan well done! Good stuff. Looking forward to following and reading your material as the years roll on. Cheers and thanks! Great book. Narrator was awesome, author I assume 👍
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- Matthew
- 2023-03-09
Impactful
The way Ryan Holiday masterfully presents Stoic Philosophy with real world, historical examples, helps the listener (or reader) learn how to apply Stoic principles and discipline in their lives. If you have ever felt trapped, stuck or confused then this book is for you. The impediment to action advances action, what is in the way becomes the way. This book is essentially a “how to” for turning obstacles into triumphs.
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- Maria Furlong
- 2023-12-01
Profound
The book is Applicable to absolutely everything. Life changing material. A must read for everyone
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