The Daily Stoic - Embracing Alive Time And Stoic Wisdom with Arnold Schwarzenegger And Robert Greene

Episode Date: October 8, 2023

In this Sunday episode of The Daily Stoic, Ryan Holiday takes us on an exhilarating journey through a weekend filled with preparation, family time and embracing what the Stoics call "alive time." After he sits down for a captivating interview with none other than the legendary Arnold Schwarzenegger, he also shares his personal experiences driving along the stunning Pacific Coast Highway, and expresses gratitude for the incredible turnout at his and Robert Greene's sold-out show in Los Angeles. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello, I'm Hannah. And I'm Seruti. And we are the hosts of a Red Handed, a weekly true crime podcast. Every week on Red Handed, we yet stuck into the most talked about cases. But we also dig into those you might not have heard of, like the Nephiles Royal Massacre and the Nithory Child Sacrifices. Whatever the case, we want to know what pushes people to the extremes of human behaviour. Find, download, and binge Red Handhanded wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Go SoundReal. At least as a journalist, that's what I've always believed. Sure, odd things happened in my childhood bedroom, but ultimately, I shrugged it all off. That is, until a couple of years ago, when I discovered that every subsequent argument of that house is convinced they've experienced something inexplicable too, including the most recent inhabitant who says she was visited at night by the ghost of a faceless woman. And it gets even stranger. It just so happens that the alleged ghost haunted my childhood room might just be my wife's great grandmother. It was murdered in the house next door by two gunshots to the face. From wandering in Pineapple Street Studios comes Ghost Story, a podcast about family secrets overwhelming coincidence and the things that come back to haunt us.

Follow Ghost Story on the wandering app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes ad-free right now by joining Wandry Plus. by joining One Rebus. Welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Stoic Podcast. On Sundays, we take a deeper dive into these ancient topics with excerpts from the Stoic texts, audio books that we like here, recommend here at Daily Sto Stoke and other long form wisdom that you can chew on on this relaxing weekend. We hope this helps shape your understanding of this philosophy and most importantly that

you're able to apply it to your actual life. Thank you for listening. Hey, it's Ryan Holiday. Welcome to another weekend episode of the Daily Stoke Podcast. I used to do more of these and I sort of stepped just because we've had so much other content I wanted to share, but it was a particularly crazy week that I just got back from. And a couple of times as I was both enjoying myself or feeling overwhelmed, I thought, there's some stoic lessons in this.

And maybe I should share. And so that's what I thought I might do today. So last week, it began at, I don't know, five in the morning, four in the morning. I had to get up and fly to California, where I was supposed to do a thing in the morning and then I got moved at the last second to the afternoon. But anyways, I flew out to LA.

I got to my hotel, sort of my speaking agent was like, look, we tried to get you in early, there's no promises, you may have to wait a while. So I sort of do my little pre-meditash omelette, I'm going okay, my mentally prepared, I will be hungry, I will be tired, am I prepared to simply sit in a hotel lobby and wait for my room or how am I going to use this time.

Anyways, I got into Santa Monica and I was pleasantly surprised the room was ready even though it was early. In fact, I'd had to book two nights in the hotel, even though I was going to spend zero nights there. So I could be in the morning and be in the afternoon and be there until the evening or whatever. But it was worth it. So I could get some work done, right?

Try to do the a lifetime stuff, try to not waste time. So I got to my room, did a little reading, did a little writing, got to run in. And then I went and I shot some video down on the beach in Santa Monica with Dawson and Rachel, who both worked for me. And then it was time to head over,

to interview someone who I have a lot of memories about, growing up. Maybe you do too. I was interviewing Arnold Schwarzenegger about his new book called Be Useful, which is great. That episode will come out in a little bit, so stay tuned for that. But like I told him as we got up there, I had this memory. I remember my parents took me to the rally at the Capitol where he announced his candidacy back in 2003.

I don't remember much from it. I just remember that twisted sister was there and that they were playing. We're not going to take it at classic 80s hair metal song and Arnold was later. There was some delay. And I remember they just played the song over and over and over like they just played it on loop until he showed up,

which was many, many renditions. So I sort of had that memory. And, you know, he was governor of California for a good chunk of my teens then, which was a surreal, sort of strange experience. He has a credible life story. And he and I go back, I know his chief of staff and his speech writer.

I've known him a long time Daniel and One time I was going to Gratz to give a talk. This is right after the obstacles away come out And I think Arnold had read obstacle and no Daniel had and I so I said hey, I'm going there And I said anything I should do and he introduced me to this friend of his and that friend showed my wife and I around It was quite a quite an evening. And so anyways, full circle for me to finally get to meet him in person interview him, which I did, which is great.

And then I step out of the interview. And the one and only ritual is in the lobby. They had booked us back to back, Arnold did the Daily Stoke podcast and then he did rituals podcast. So we got to shoot the shit for a while there and Arnold's very cool office. Again, sort of a surreal sort of pinch me experience that I never expected to happen in my life and

rich sent me a text after and just sort of said, is this real life? And I said, yeah, it's crazy man. So wrapped up the interview and then I had to drive to Ohai after that. And so I'm driving up the PCH2 Ohai as the sun is setting. It's been a crazy day. I'm exhausted and it just it just hit me how wonderful life is. How absurdly beautiful life is. It's probably one of the most beautiful drives in the world. Up PCH through you know from Santa Monica to Malibu. And you're just driving along the ocean. I mean, I was actually struck by two thoughts.

So, one was just how insanely beautiful the sun setting over the ocean got through traffic. It clears up, I'm listening to music, I'm talking to my kids on the phone, you know, just life on planet Earth is beautiful and amazing. And then also this other thought hit me, which is just how awful human beings are in the sense that somebody saw this coastline and said,

we need to clear a chunk of it for automobile traffic. And that's what I was experiencing. So there's kind of a high loneliness of the human species right there. First, the engineering marvel that is the PCH Highway 1. And then the sheer entitlement and destructiveness of human beings embodied all there and one. I get up to Ohai, I have like five minutes to check in my room, and then I'm meeting a friend for dinner, Pete Holmes, the comedian who's also been on the podcast, who's booked millions of dollars a year,

Netflix specials all the prizes of the profession in his and the person was sort of unhappy and busy and too busy and said he never gets to see his kids and you know and Pete was just like, what are you talking about? Like this is all a voluntary thing. You are choosing for it to be this way. And it was, it was right and and I've thought about that myself, and I felt good in the sense that, although I had to do a talk the next day, actually two talks, three talks the next day, I was going straight from those talks that evening to my hotel and flying home

just to see my kids for less than 24 hours. I could have spent that in a hotel room, would have been more relaxing. Maybe I even would have performed better, but I had prioritized in my schedule how to do that. So I really liked that. It's also interesting, Amy Adams was sitting on a table across from us.

It was a beautiful evening. And I went home, I went to the hotel, I crashed, I got up that morning and went for a very nice run in O'Hai. And then I spoke, this thing called mastermind talks, which I'll run a clip of that talk at some point in the future. It's a cool full circle moment for me also. I first did that talk 10 years ago, right after Trust Me Online came out and did it again right when the obstacles away.

It was coming out. The talk I gave was all about how when the obstacles away came out, you know, my publisher didn't think it was going to work. One of my friends thought it sell like 5,000 copies. And so for now approaching the 10 year anniversary of the obstacles away, just to see the experience the trajectory, the insane luck that I've had, it just really made me feel really grateful. But as before I went on, Jason, who's the founder of Mastermind Talks and his wife, who's the co-founder with him, Candace, she was like, I have a

present for you. She was like, I was in this rare bookstore in Hoai and I was just looking at the the first editions they had and I think you might like this book. And you know what she handed me? She handed me a first edition of The Harder They Fall by Bud Schuylberg, which is a book. I've talked about this before. It's a book that changed my life. I read it when I was at American Apparel. It's about a publicist who shouldn't be a publicist, who dreams of being a writer.

And I have this memory of that book changing my life. Like I shortly thereafter quit and became a writer. And retrospect these things are always more complicated than that. I found out it took four or five years before I made that leap. But to now have this, I mean, it was just it was just absolutely perfect. So I will treasure that forever. So thanks to Jason and Candace for having me. So I gave my talk there in the morning. I got to go back to my hotel, having me. So I gave my talk there in the morning. I got to go back to my hotel, swim, some laps in the pool, went back down, and then did a 75 minute Q&A there at Mastermind Talks with some old friends and folks. I'll probably bring you that as an episode someday. And then

I had to get in the car and race down without being frantic or stressed because that's not a good headspace. I had to race down back to Los Angeles. Unfortunately, George Ravling was coming to match my mind talks the next day, so I missed him. But I had to go, because I was doing my live talk in LA with the one and only Robert Green at the Eable Theatre. Credible experience, thank you all who came out. I think it went really good.

I'll be able to bring you that. It's just, again, a full circle crazy moment, 15 plus years ago I met Robert when I was 19 years old. The idea that we would be selling out a theater in Los Angeles doing a talk together, just absolutely unreal. It was great to meet all of you in person to be able to talk about these ideas.

That was just super cool. And then, it's to the hotel, crash, drive home, drive to the crash, get on the shuttle, the airport, fly home. And I drove straight to the bookstore. I picked up my son, Jones, and my wife could work. And then he and I hung out at the house. But one of the things that she and I had talked about, that I am working on, I talked about reentry, right?

When I was talking, I was like, hey, if I don't come home in the middle of the strip, I'm gonna be gone for six days. And that's too much. I don't wanna miss my kids that much. And I don't wanna be at a pocket that much. And so I wanna come home in the middle and we sort of talked about,

is the stress work worth it, is the fatigue worth it. And she said, it's of course worth it, but only if you are additive when you come home. And what she meant was, like, am I going to come home and have a bunch of needs and be out of it and need to adjust? Or am I going to connect right back into life? That's one of the things I think you learn that you travel a lot for work. And you have kids is like, life goes on when you're not there. So I think there's a stoke humility message. Like, the world is a revolver on you. The world revolves around the things that need to happen. And when you're not there. So I think there's a still humility message. Like the world is a revolver on you,

the world revolves around the things that need to happen. And when you're out, other people do extra to compensate for that. Emily, do you remember when one direction called it a day? I think you'll find there are still many people who can't talk about it. Well, luckily, we can. A lot, because our new season of terribly famous is all about the first one

directioner to go it alone. Zayn Malik. We'll take you on Zayn's journey from Shilad from Bradford to being in the world's biggest boy band and explore why, when he reached the top, he decided to walk away. Follow terribly famous wherever you get your podcasts. So, terribly famous. So, when you come home, you have to plug back in. You have to, you know, it's like, I have to go straight in, start doing the dishes.

I have to go in and cook dinner. I have to go in and, you know, I have to do family stuff, selfless stuff, not what I need to adjust, right? So I did that, was home not too long, I had to head to the airport the next day and I flew to Seattle for the next gig, which was a cool experience. I was excited about.

That gig got canceled last time because Robert got really sick. So I appreciate everyone who stuck with us, who moved things around on their calendar to have us again. And I got in, I signed all the books for the merch and then prepped the venue, he's already, and then we're doing the talks, all's going well. And right as we're transitioning to the Q&A, we're in the like the early stages of the Q&A,

a woman fell. And she hit her head so loudly, like the camera picked like we don't have a footage of it, but like you can hear it happening on the footage of the event. I just noticed sort of a commotion, we sort of rushed down, and this woman had slipped or fallen or passed out. I don't know exactly, but she fell and she hit her head really hard. And there was blood and the paramedics had to be called and the police came and it was quite an experience. I feel so badly for her from what I understand she's doing better now.

And I got a text from her daughter that said, she's finally been discharged from the hospital, she's in good spirits, she's ready to be home and we're all happy that she's okay. And she really appreciates everyone pulling for her. Everyone in the audience was absolutely incredible. So patient, nobody I felt like was inconvenienced or frustrated by it, even though, you know, it's obviously not what anyone expected.

It's not what they paid for. People have babysitters and places they need to go and flights to catch or whatever. But everyone was amazing. It was so much more inspiring to see all the sort of civilians who rushed to help. There's a doctor in the audience and she helped. And everyone was calm. And the first time I was just a reminder

that you never know what's gonna happen. You never know what's gonna happen to you. And you just gotta deal with it calmly. You gotta remember that this inconvenience for you can be the worst moment in someone's life That you know there, but for the grace of God go, I tried to tell myself and then of course in the big scheme of things None of these things are that important and we just have to be patient and try to be good to each other So thank you to everyone who stuck around that event went great so cool to me all everyone was telling me backstage

It's just like how historic that venue was. I guess who Dini had performed there at the Mortheater. All my favorite crunch bands had performed there. You know, just a surreal, very cool experience. Back to the hotel and crashed. Woke up early, took the flight home. And then by Friday, I was back in the swing of things. They're really cool podcasts.

They're on Saturday, which I'll bring you soon. And now I'm back in the rhythm of things. I, while I was in Seattle, I went to Elliot Bay Books, which is one of my favorite indie bookstores in the United States. I got the new Walter Isaacson Elon Musk book, which I burned through. So lots of reading, lots of memories, lots of things that got accomplished this last week. One of those still lessons I was mentioning.

Remember, pre-meditarns from Lauren, plan for things to go sideways, always have a backup plan. When I book travel through the speaking agency, they always book me on a flight and a backup flight. And I try to never accept flights or I never try to take a for my first flight. Sorry, my flights to events, I always do only if there is a backup flight. So things can't go sideways. You know, for instance, driving down from Ohai to LA for the gig, you know, lots of traffic. So you'll leave early in advance. I always try to have the backups, the backups, you know, lots of traffic. So you'll leave early in advance. I always try to have

the backups, the backups, the backups, because people are depending on you, right? And if it's more convenient for me, but there's less of a margin for error, really what I'm just doing is externalizing those consequences and other people. Number two, the idea of reentry, right? It's not all about you, how quickly can you make fast transitions? We had Randall Stuttman on the Daily Stoic Leadership Challenge a while back and he said, you know, a job of leaders to make fast transitions. Transitioning from one talk to the next talk, to the drive, to the third talk, right? From the talk to dinner afterwards, from the dinner afterwards to sleep, sleep to the airplane, airplane to home, home to being a dad. How fast can you transition between the different roles? This requires discipline, it requires focus, requires, I think,

you know, reducing ego a bit, and it requires presence. This is a very important idea. And then the third idea, what I took from this, is just a memento-mory. You never know what's going to happen. A little accident can dramatically change the course of someone's life, and should be patient with people, should be kind to people, and we should not put stuff off, not delay, because you never know. And then on the memento-mory, it wasn't't just that like she fell, but when I went to see Arnold, he and I were reminiscing about that friend

that had shown us around Gratz. And I remember a couple years ago, I went to Google the guy, I was gonna send him an email or something, I just say I was thinking about him and it turned out he had sort of tragically died, died quite young. And so I can't think of that evening,

that great time we had together, without also thinking of, hey, you never know. And so I can't take people for granted. And then I guess the final lesson, the thing that stuck with me most is sort of a gratitude, right? A gratitude as I drove up PCH and all that beauty, gratitude as I got to do what I love to hang out with Robert on stage with people and people bought tickets. I gratitude to get to meet the people that

have read my books. Gratitude to be alive, right? All of this is wonderful and put your problems in perspective. It's just a lesson I'm trying to meditate on always. I will stop yammering. I know you don't sign up for this podcast to just listen to uninterrupted blocks of me talking more than a couple minutes at a time. That's why I keep those emo short. Anyways, that's what I wanted to talk about on this Sunday episode of the Daily Stoke Podcast. Thanks to everyone who came out. Thanks to everyone who read the books. Thanks to everyone for everything. It's a joy of my life to get to do all this and I appreciate you all so much. Thanks to my family also for putting up with a crazy week like this.

Thanks to Arnold for coming on the podcast and many many other things. Thanks for listening to the Daily Stoke podcast. Just a reminder we've got signed copies of all my books in the Daily Stoke store. You can get them personalized, you can get them sent to a friend. The app goes the way. You go as the enemy, still in this is the key, the leather bound edition of the daily stoke, we have them all in the daily stoke store, which you can check out at store.dailystoke.com. Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to the Daily Stoic Early and Add Free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and add free with Wondery Plus in Apple Podcasts.

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