The Daily Stoic - Always Think About What Is Above You

Episode Date: July 14, 2020

"It’s easy for power to go to your head. You see all the people that work for you and think you’re important. You fill out that online survey and find out that, hey, for what you make and where you live, you’re in the 1% or 10% or top 50% of earners. When you look at who is beneath you, who you’re doing better than, ego creeps in. Being someone’s 'superior'—whether that’s a superior officer or just a superior salesman—makes us feel superior."Find out how to defeat that impulse in today's Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow @DailyStoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stood Podcast early and add free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wundery's podcast business wars. And in our new season, Walmart must fight off target. The new discounter that's both savvy and fashion forward. Listen to business wars on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. music or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Daily Stoic. For each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living good 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 dailystowach.com. Always think about what is above you. It's easy for power to go to your head. You see all the people that work for you and think you're important. You fill out that online survey and find out that, hey, for what I make and where I live, I'm in the 1% or the 10% or the top 50% of earners. When you look at who has beneath you, who you're doing better than, ego creeps in,

being someone superior, whether that's a superior officer or just a superior salesman, it makes us feel superior. The writer Plutarch reminds all leaders that they must check against this impulse. You are a governor, he writes, but you yourself are also governed. You lead a city that is subject to the pro-console, who is the representative of Caesar. You must not think too highly of or place too much trust in your crown since you can see the pro-consles boots above your head.

What was so impressive about Marcus Aurelius was that even though he was the head of a powerful empire, he sought actively to look for what was above him where the limits of his authorities were. By that, he didn't just mean death, though he wrote about the humbling, equalizing effects of mortality too. He was one of the first emperors to defer to the Senate. He never demanded funds, only requested them.

My family owns nothing. He said not even this house we live in. It belongs to you, the people. After he was named Hadrian's heir, he still submitted to his philosophy teachers, choosing to visit them, rather than make them come to him, a sign that he still believed he was beneath them. So when you're reflecting on whatever power or prestige you've accumulated, try to think of this example. If you're a head coach, remember that you can be fired by the athletic director

and the president of the university. If you're a cop, that the chief can bust you down a rank or suspend you, a lawyer that the bar determines your ability to practice, even the president stands for re-election and all tyrants answer to the people eventually. Humility is key to keeping you working hard, to keeping you honest, to keeping perspective. Ego, well, as you know, that's the enemy. If you like the podcast that we do here and you want to get it via email every morning, perspective, ego, well, as you know, that's the enemy.

If you like the podcast that we do here and you want to get it via email every morning, you can sign up at dailystoke.com slash email. Hey, prime members, you can listen to the daily Stoic early and ad-free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus in Apple Podcasts. Hey there listeners! While we take a little break here, I want to tell you about another podcast that I think you'll like.

It's called How I Built This, where host Guy Razz talks to founders behind some of the world's biggest and most innovative companies, to learn how they built them from the ground up. Guy has sat down with hundreds of founders behind well-known companies like Headspace, Manduke Yoga Mats, Soul Cycle, and Cotopaxi, as well as entrepreneurs working to solve some of the biggest problems of our time, like developing technology that pulls energy from the ground to heat in cool homes, or even figuring out how to make drinking water from air and sunlight.

Together, they discuss their entire journey from day one, and all the skills they had to learn along the way, like confronting big challenges, and how to lead through uncertainty. So if you want to get inspired and learn how to think like an entrepreneur, check out how I built this, wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and add free on the Amazon or Wondery app.