The Daily Stoic - The Power Of Courage | Ryan Holiday Speaks To The US Naval Academy

Episode Date: August 14, 2022

In April of 2022 Ryan Holiday traveled to Annapolis, Maryland to speak to the US Naval Academy about courage.✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🎓 FREE GUIDE to Stoic philosophy: https://dailystoic.com/freeguide🏛 Get Stoic inspired books, medallions, and prints to remember these lessons at the Daily Stoic Store: https://store.dailystoic.com/See 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 Stoic Podcast early and add free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. 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, from the Stoic texts, audio books that you like here recommend here at Daily Stoic, 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 actual life. Thank you for listening. of life. Thank you. For listening. 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. academic institutions in the United States, you might not think of the U.S. Naval Academy as being

on the forefront or the leading institution in the study of Stoicism, but they are. The Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, per the research and work and life of Admiral Stockdale is one of the Americas. And I would say the world's great institutions studying about talking about and putting into practice the ideals of the Stoics. Now, I'm going there now in August to give what I think will be my fourth talk there.

I think I've done three other ones. Today I'm bringing you a talk I gave earlier this year. It's February, March. I can't even remember anymore, but I gave a talk about courage to, I believe, a class of sophomores. I'm giving another talk there, which I will also bring you. But for now, I'm bringing you a talk as part of the series of books I'm writing on the Stoke Virtues.

Discipline is destiny you can preorder now at dailystoke.com slash prayer, but the first book in that four book series, this Cardinal Virtues series, is about courage. And I wrote this book about courage in the Naval Academy, asked me to come give a talk about courage. And I went and I think you're really going to like this talk. It was, it's always a joy and an honor to be there to walk the history of this institution. I went and I saw John McCain's grave stood there for a minute. I went for a beautiful run there along the water. And I got to see these young midshipmen and midship women and we had a wonderful talk. I even went in later and gave a talk to an English class that was reading some of Sena Qas letters.

But for now, here is my talk on applying courage to your life, whether you are a cadet at the Naval Academy or an ordinary person just trying to make sense of a crazy world. I think you'll like this. Enjoy. Good evening. Comedon, distinguished guests, class of 2024. I'm excited to introduce your speaker for this evening's Stutt Lecture.

This actually, Ethics Lecture series is made possible by a generous gift to the leaders to serve the nation campaign by William C. Stutt, a member of the Naval Academy class of 1949 and his wife, Caroline. Hey! Few writers have done more to bring ancient, timeless wisdom and cutting-edge marketing strategies together than Ryan Holiday. By age 33, his philosophically driven bestselling books have sold over 4 million copies and spent more than 200 weeks on best-seller lists. His books are taught at colleges and marketing programs around the world, including

Trust Me I'm Lying, which revealed the massive vulnerabilities and opportunities in the global media system in 2012. He has directly influenced Super Bowl winning teams like the New England Patriots, NBA champions like the San Antonio Spurs, and Olympic gold medalists, as well as sitting senators, military leaders in some of the biggest and most important companies in the world, like Google, Twitter, and Microsoft. Please join me in welcoming the AC AC Year 2023 Brady Fellow for Virtue Ethics,

Mr. Ryan Holiday. It's in honor to be with all of you tonight. I want to start with a story of the Naval Academy graduate, one Jimmy Carter here, class of 46. I'm gonna say a lot of those. You're gonna have to do that a lot. Here is with his wife now of 75 years, Rosalind. He graduates. He enters the submarine service. And then he secures the opportunity of a lifetime in 1952 when he is set to be interviewed by Admiral Rickover. Now, Admiral Rickover is not just one of America's great immigrant success stories.

One of its great naval success stories, one of its most brilliant minds. He's, of course, the father of the nuclear navy. He is also one of the most hands-blown leaders in American history. In fact, he not only tests every submarine before it goes out into service, but he interviews every single candidate for the submarine service, including a young Jimmy Carter. And as he interviews a young Carter,

it's a long two, three hour interview. They talk about strategy, they talk about tactics, they talk about physics, they talk about literature. And Carter had prepared over and over and over again for this interview and seems to be going well and Rick over asked me, says, how did you stand in your class at the Naval Academy? And he puffs up his chest, he beams with pride and he says,

I was 59th in a class of more than 800. And Rick over who's never won to be particularly impressed with grades asked him, but did you always do your best? And Carlton goes instinctively to answer, yes, of course, I did my best, as we all would like to think that we do. But then something inside of him catches, and he thinks for a second, and he thinks about the workouts that he hosted through. He thinks about the classes that he didn't always take seriously when he hosted on natural talents,

when he was satisfied with being in the middle of the pack or not getting a perfect score when he ignored opportunities for extra credit when he didn't do all the required reading but just got the gist of it. And then he looks at Rick over and he says, no sir, I did not always do my best. And that's when Rick overhits him with a question that would change Carter's life. He says, why not?

And then he signals that the interview is over and he leaves the room. And this question would haunt Jimmy Carter for the rest of his life. Why didn't I always do my best? And of course, the positive expression in that, which is, am I doing my best? In fact, one of his first books is campaign memoir

when he runs for governor of Georgia, is titled Why Not The Best. And so this question is the guiding question of Carter's life. Am I giving my best, am I doing all of it, am I really trying? Now, the reason this question is so haunting is the truth is we don't always do our best.

And there is usually something more that we could give. I think about this in my own life, unlike many of the prestigious speakers who have graced this stage, I don't think most of my teachers in high school would have predicted I would be here. I didn't get into anything close to something as elite as the naval academy. And when I think back as to why that was, why I was a bit of a late bloomer in that sense, I think I was afraid. I was afraid of really trying. I was afraid of really doing my best, really reaching for something my parents had somewhat low expectations. I internalized those somewhat low expectations. But there was a safety in it. My mentor, the

great writer, Robert Green, he says that teenagers, but I think this is true for all of us. We strike as somewhat paradoxical pose, or where we're lackadaisical and rebellious. It's a way of staying in place, because if we try hard, if we do our best, if we put ourselves all the way out there, it brings an increased risk of failure.

And then when we fail, right, it says something about us. And since we can't handle the thought of that, since we are afraid of that, we almost celebrate slacking off. We celebrate irony, we celebrate, holding back, we say, I don't really want to do this. I don't want to be like those people. I don't want to go all the way. We embrace that sort of middleing attitude. And this is a dangerous thing because it deprives the world, not just of great people who could improve it,

but it also deprives us of the unique ability of realizing our full potential, which is entirely unique. Every single one of you has a unique set of experiences, a unique set of talents, a totally unique DNA code that never has before and never will exist again. And so to try, to be brave enough to put yourself fully out there, is to risk failing, and to risk failing, is to risk shame.

Criticism in most of our ego, the most sensitive and fragile thing that there is. And I think it took an immense amount of courage on Carter's part to embrace, to accept, to look in the mirror and go, I didn't always give my best. And then to endeavor in the future, always do that. The courage to try, it's funny, the irony is we don't try because we risk, we think we risk failure and that failure

will shame us or embarrass us. So it's the self-protection mechanism. But the irony is that doing your best, actually putting everything out there and into it is, in fact, the greatest protection, especially in a world where we don't control outcomes. Obviously, you guys have a certain amount of pride in some of my credit as a graduate from here.

And yet, he's not really anyone's favorite president. He's not a heroic figure to a lot of us who kind of have a medium opinion. And when in fact he thinks he's one of the great American presidents, I think he deserves to be up there with Truman. But what I, to me, is great about Carter and why I tell this story about doing your best

is that it is the ultimate protection. Now, I actually think that one of Carter's greatest achievements and one of the places that he sees furthest ahead and we're seeing this now play out in Ukraine, is that Carter, when he wins the presidency in 76, decides he sees that America is dangerously dependent on foreign energy. And he starts to see what we now call climate change as well.

And he has a remarkable amount of foresight. He gives one of his most famous speeches where he says, America needs a moral equivalent of war to combat climate change and to combat foreign energy dependence. And how do most people react to this? They laugh at him. He puts solar panels on the roof of the White House in the 70s, right? How ahead of its time is that? And the first thing Ronald Reagan does when he takes the

presidency is tear those panels off. Right? Prada was remarkably ahead of his time. He had an amazing foresight. And had we listened then, who knows where the future would be now, who knows the position America and the free world would be, had we taken those active steps, which Carter was uniquely familiar with due to his time with Rick over in the nuclear fleet. So I tell all this because obviously you haven't heard much of this, this isn't a thing we celebrate with Carter,

the policy fails. But this is where Rick over and the idea of doing your best comes back in. Rick over says that he has no doubt that the public will ultimately understand and see Carter as a far-seeing man who attempted to protect the people of the US. And he says that all great ideas have been seen

as failure when they are too early, but this is the key part. And this is the idea of a Stern task max master like Rick over that as long as you are trying as hard as you can to do what you think is right, you are a success regardless of outcome. So it may be that you do your best. It may be that you put everything into something,

it may be that you are totally an 100% correct, but it may not be enough. But if you have done that, you can sit quietly in a room alone, knowing that you have done that. You can sleep soundly at night, right? If you have done your best, you know there is nothing else you can do. So yes, there is some risk in trying and putting yourself out there. But to me, that risk is far less

scary than the risk of knowing that you left something on the table that you could have been better, you could have been one of those people in the room, you could have gone all the way, you really could have become something. And so when we think about this idea of doing our best, if you wanna leave you with that question, right? Why not the best? Did you always do your best? If the answer is no, you better have a really good answer

to follow, which is why not? So we're gonna talk about courage, and that courage being the first of the four cardinal virtues. Courage, temperance, justice, wisdom. This is a sign I have in my office. I pass by multiple times a day. Courage, represented by the lion. Now, I wouldn't dare to speak to you much about physical courage,

far more qualified people to talk to you about that. But I want to talk about courage. To me, courage is kind of like a gem. You hold it up. You look at it from different angles. And each angle, each slice of it gives you a better sense of this complicated thing. Because courage isn't one thing.

It doesn't only exist this way or look this way. It is in fact many things. There's of course physical courage, right? This is the courage of the soldier. This is the courage of the soldier. This is the courage of a pilot. This is the courage of a firefighter running into a burning building. This is the courage of a police officer. This is the courage of a person who risks themselves

and their physical safety to do something that matters. And then there's moral courage. This is the courage of the whistleblower, of the pioneering scientists of the barrier breaker. Now, it is wrong, but now that these two kinds of courage are very different, and they are different, they appear different, but I would argue that they are also the same.

At their core, they are about putting your ass on the line, putting yourself out there risking something for something. Right? Risking one's reputation, risking one's life. Sometimes those things can feel like the same, but the idea is that courage is that risk that putting yourself out there seems pretty simple, but we'll get into why this is a little more complicated,

but putting your ass on the line literally or figuratively, that's what I wanted to find courage as tonight. Florence Nightingale, she's born in Florence in 1820, born to a rich Victorian family, she has everything she could possibly want, no pressure, no expectations. In fact, she's not expected to do anything, but get married and throw parties and be witty. But from an early age, she has this independent streak. I read a beautiful book about Florence Nightingale and I marked, she has this independent streak. I read a beautiful book about Florence Noughton Gill and I marked up this drawing that I love. This is a drawing that one of her aunts did of Florence Noughton Gill as a young girl. And she said, here is Florence

independently stumping along by herself, right? Her sister who's older has to hold the hand of an adult, but Florence is braver than that. She puts herself out there. And so it's fitting that when she's about 16 years old, she gets a call. She hears a voice that says she should do something with her life. She feels called to nursing specifically, but stuff gets in the way.

Her parents say, why would you ever do something like that? Why would you associate with these people? It was considered low, it was considered risky, it was considered beneath her social station. And so for many years, she ignores this call for eight years in fact. She doesn't reach out, she doesn't achieve her destiny, she doesn't put herself out there,

not even not doing her best, she doesn't even put herself out there. She's scared, right? Fear of being the opposite of courage in that way. And then eight years into this ignoring the cost, she gets it again, she says, are you going to let reputation hold you back from service? Her parents at one point say,

we'd rather you be a prostitute than a nurse. The idea that she would go out there and do something, she would take care of these people, it was anathema to her social class. And her answer to this question, as it is for many of us, was yes. She was going to let what people think holds her back from service. After familiar with the idea of the hero's journey, this is in fact part of the hero's journey. You live in the ordinary world, you get the call to adventure and what comes next is the refusal of the call.

What's remarkable, what's tragic about Florence Nightingale is that she always that call for 16 years. For 16 years, the call falls on deaf ears because she's afraid of what other people think. She feels she's not trained. She feels like she's not trained. She feels like she will be supported. She feels like it's impossible. She feels like one individual can't possibly make a difference.

So this idea that each one of us has a destiny, each one of us is called to do something that each one of us has a unique set of characteristics and skills. The question is, are we brave enough to reach it? Are we brave enough to put ourselves out there and take it? The problem is that stuff gets in the way. My friend Stephen Pressfield, who wrote Gates of Fire, who was a Marine, he says that the thing that gets in the way between us and our art, we talk about this a lot as writers,

he says the stuff that gets between us and our art and our destiny and our calling calls this the resistance. And sometimes it's what people think. Sometimes it's all the reasons why it's really difficult. Sometimes it's a lack of resources. Sometimes it's a lack of time. Sometimes it's just pure procrastination. But that resistance gets in the way.

And it holds us back. Winston Churchill says there comes a time in all of our lives when something figuratively taps us on the shoulder. It's a chance to do a very special thing unique to us fitted to our unique talents. And it says what a tragedy it is if that in that moment, we are unprepared or

unqualified for what could have been our finest hour. And that very well could have been Florence Nightingale's story. Pat Tillman who leaves a fantastic career in the NFL to join the Army Rangers. He says, somewhere inside, we hear a voice. Our voiceman who leaves a fantastic career in the NFL to join the Army Rangers. He says somewhere inside we hear a voice. Our voice leads us in a direction. The person we wish to

become, but it's up to us whether we followed or not, right? The heroes journey. The call to adventure, the call to greatness, the call to destiny, the call to make your mark in history. Do you accept it or do you ignore it? Florence Dyingale ignores it for a long time and that could be seen as tragic or we could see it as a 16 year process of girting herself up, stealing her will because when she finally decides to break with her family, when she decides to do it, it's a transformation like that. She says, I must expect no sympathy or help.

I must take something as little as I can to enable me to live. I must take it and they will not be given to me, right? Your destiny isn't this thing that people give you. It's something that must be seized, that must be taken, that must be fulfilled. To seek that destiny, to become that person, it may be disruptive.

You may be judged. It may mean a break with this or that, but it's not selfish in fact, self-liss as one of the great poems by Longfellow about Florence, that and go says, we need these people, the people that lift us up from when we're alone, who their greatest inspires us and calls us to become what we are capable of doing. And in those field hospitals in Crimea, later all over the world, Florence Nantengale, that essentially pioneers, the concept of modern nursing and a time when you were more likely to die of disease than on the battlefield.

When the worst thing that could happen to you would be to go to a hospital, she revolutionizes all of this. She changes it. The thing that people said wouldn't work. The people that said it was lowly. In fact, rises up a generation of people, a generation of women, and it transforms the world. But we need this kind of courage.

We need this kind of courage to seize that destiny, to become that thing. Only we are capable of becoming regardless of what other people think. Now, this is Marcus Relais. If I could take you back to 165 A.D. the Antonin plague hits Rome. It makes COVID look like a walk in the

park. It's actually brought back to Rome from the far flungs of the empire by soldiers returning home from war. And it ripples through the Roman Empire overwhelms the Treasury, it overwhelms public health, it overwhelms the cities. Millions of people at overwhelms the cities, millions of people die. And if that was the only crisis of Marcus Aurelius' reign, it would have been hard enough.

But in fact, he also deals with historic flooding, the type of river floods. Once in a generation flood, then there's an invasion at Rome's borders, which he's forced to dispatch. And then just all the ordinary problems of running in enormous empire. It's one thing after another. And one ancient historian, Cassius Thio, says, that Marcus does not have the good fortune that he deserved. And almost his whole reign was involved in a series of troubles. And we can see Marcus staggering under the weight of all of this.

And yet he writes in meditations his favorite, his classic book, perhaps one of the greatest books ever written. He says, it's unfortunate that this happened. And he catches himself. He says, no, it's fortunate that it happens to me, right? Because he was brave enough to deal with it, because he was strong enough to deal with it, because he had trained for exactly this.

So this question of, is it unfortunate or fortunate? This is the one thing that we get to decide in life. This is our choice. Our ex-realist rights and meditations that our actions can be impeded. Stuff can go wrong. We can find ourselves in difficult situations, but we can always convert and adapt these circumstances

to our own acting. He says, the impediment to action advances action, what stands in the way he comes away. This is my book, The Ops School, is the way, the idea being that stuff happens, but this stuff is also an opportunity. The Stoics believed that in any and all situations, no matter how undesirable or unexpected or unfortunate,

there are contains inside them an opportunity to practice virtue or arreightay, to be our best, to do our best. Perhaps not in the way that we intended, the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of

the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of

the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state ofgerows of France, Eisenhower calls all of his generals into the field headquarters and he says, look, the present situation is to be regarded

as opportunity and not disaster. He says I only want to see cheerful faces around this conference table. To me, this is what leadership is, the decision to see it as fortunate, not unfortunate, to see it as an opportunity, to step up to be a leader, right? And in fact, if you're familiar with the Fowley's pocket and then later, the battle of the boards, this is eyes and how are seeing that in the midst of this enormous counteroffensive,

if they can bend and not break, if they can absorb it, if they can insert it, it's actually a massive strategic opportunity that as overwhelming as the threat was, it was also a strategic blunder by the Nazis. So the idea to have the control, the step up to be the leader when everyone else is rattled, when everyone else is scared, this is what courage is about, and this kind of courage is contagious. But that means stepping up. It means making hard decisions, and there are no easy decisions, not in leadership, not in life, right? The easy decisions get taken by everyone else beneath you. Dean Aikus in the Secretary of State, under Truman, he says, at the top,

there are no easy choices all are between evils, the consequences of which are hard to judge. Each of you as leaders are going to have to make decisions that are not clear, that are not easy. If they were easy and clear and obvious and the outcome was guaranteed, never would have made it to you in the first place. Someone else would have taken care of it. Right? So, so leadership, you can imagine Marcus Reelis the head of this empire is overwhelmed by this plague, the enormity of the decisions that is having to make over and over again. Imagine Eisenhower off the coast of France deciding is the weather going

to hold? Are we going to go or not? Right? Writing a little note to himself to be opened in the case of the invasion's failure. Right? This is the kind of decisions that leaders have to make. This is what strength is. This is what courage is about, can you make those hard decisions, right? So Marcus really has to do this over and over again, hard decisions. But it's also the source of his greatness. We talked about the obstacles. The way that same historian Cassius Dio says, the Marcus didn't have the good force and that he deserved. His whole reign was beset by a series of troubles. But he says, I for my part him admired him all the lore for this very reason that amid unusual and extraordinary difficulties,

he both survived himself and preserved the empire. Right? So the fact that it is hard, the fact that it's difficult, the fact that it is one obstacle after the other is in fact the opportunity for greatness. If you are brave enough to step up and do your best. 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 discussed 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. General Mattis talks about his idyllic childhood in Washington and he says the greatest gift that his parents gave him was that they introduced He and his siblings to the world of ideas. He said not a fearful place but a place to enjoy and this is what instills in him a lifelong Learn a lifelong love of learning and the books. He says in his memoir. This is an important line

I hope everyone remembers. He says if you haven't read hundreds of books. He says in his memoir, this is an important line, I hope everyone remembers, he says, if you haven't read hundreds of books about what you do, you are functionally illiterate. You will be incompetent because your own experiences are not broad enough to sustain you. Says people have been doing what you do for thousands of years and you best learn from their experiences. Any fool can learn by experience goes in the expression, it's better to learn by the experiences of others. But I would push back on General Mattis a little bit. It's not that the world of ideas is a fun or pleasant place. There is a certain amount of scaryness to it. If it wasn't scary everyone would live there and we know for a fact that they dealt the world of ideas is a dangerous place. Truth is a scary thing. This is why so many of us

have heard our gaze from it. The pursuit of knowledge is not for the faint of heart. It itself demands a certain amount of courage and fearlessness. There's an expression I love. If history does it make you uncomfortable, you are not studying history, you are reading and consuming something quite different. If you only look for stuff that you agree with, that makes you feel smart, that confirms what you already know. Again, you are not engaging fearlessly with the world of ideas. If you only look for things that are simple, that don't make your brain hurt, again, you are doing it wrong. you are doing it wrong.

You are doing it wrong. If the world of ideas isn't challenging, isn't uncomfortable, isn't unpleasant, isn't perhaps impossible to fully wrap your head or your arms around. It is supposed to be a challenge. None of us are so smart that we can just grasp it, we can just get it.

It is a lifelong journey. Seneca, one of my favorite stoic philosophers says in fact that we must read like a spy in the enemy's camp. Seneca writes letters from a stoic, uh, is a stoic philosopher, and yet the philosopher he quotes most in his letters, his Epicurus, his rival, right? He says, I will quote a bad author if the line is good, right? He says, read like a spy in the enemy's camp. Actively seek out things that you disagree with that challenge you, that make you uncomfortable, right? That are contrary to what you've been taught,

contrary to what you wish to be true. Seek out challenging and unpleasant ideas. Epic Titus, another stoke philosopher says, it is impossible to learn that, which you think you already know. So again, it should be challenging. It should be making you feel humble and small. It shouldn't just be that you read hundreds of books.

You should read hundreds of books. Some of them several times. Herocletus says, no man steps in the same river twice. I'm on an active journey myself to now go reread books that I read at your age now for a second time now with more experience under my belt now with a greater breadth of knowledge under my belt now with current events as they are the books are the same. I am different, right? The world is different and so when we step into these ideas, into these debates,

into these questions, they are never ending, they are infinite and they should always be challenging us. The less you think you know, the more you can learn. Why is Socrates considered so wise? Why is he so brilliant? Because he did not think he was brilliant. He did not think he was wise. And he fearlessly asked questions. Socrates didn't go around greased telling people what he brilliant. He did not think he was wise. And he fearlessly asked questions. So after he's didn't go around greased telling people what he knew, he went around Athens asking questions, getting in uncomfortable discussions, challenging what he thought he knew, challenging other people's foundational questions and premises. So knowledge and truth is an uncomfortable thing. It is a battle, it's called a battle of ideas for a reason.

This is Tiger Woods. You may have seen him in the Masters this weekend. I think it's fascinating to consider that three times in Tiger Woods is clear at the top of his game in each one of those situations, he reinvented his swing entirely. And now he is trying to reinvent his golf game again in light of the horrific injuries that that she is suffering. So there's a great expression that all growth is a leap in the dark, right? He's at the top of the game. He has to reinvent his swing in between

those two places is an uncomfortable valley, a dark hallway where you don't know if you're getting out, where you don't know if you're getting out, where you don't know if you're getting better, where you don't know if it's making a difference. And again, if you're in this and you have a faint heart, you will not make it. If you need other people to be validating you, if you need external results always, if you are not just satisfied with doing your best, you will not make it from point A to point B. You will not get across that chasm. Florence Nightingale says she would rather die 10 times in the surf, heriting away to a new world

than stand idly by on the shore, right? The courage to not be complacent, to always focus on growing, on new things, on seeking out these new challenges. This is critical. Are you willing to look foolish? Epic Jesus says, if you wish to improve, be content to be seen as foolish or ignorant

about some things. If you can't do that, if you are too fragile, you will not go, you will not grow. Can you admit what you don't know? Again, can you be willing to ask questions? Can you seek out new teachers, new ways of doing things? Can you do this fearlessly? Can you do this despite, again,

the raised eyebrows or the smirks from people who think they're smarter or better than you? Can you embrace change and disruption? Because these are the only constants in life. John Wheeler, the physicist, one of the inventors of the hydrogen bomb, he says, as our island of knowledge grows, so does the shoreline of ignorance.

That is the perpetual journey, as you get better, as you become more successful, as you work your way up the ranks, what you will find over and over again is you are being exposed to things that you didn't even know, you didn't know, that you didn't even know how bad you were at them. So, again, if you're in this to feel good, if you're in this to be content, if you're in this to feel like you have arrived, if you think in this to feel good, if you're in this to be content, if you're in this to feel like you have arrived, if you think graduation is some moment where you've got it, being a student thing stops,

you're thinking about it wrong. It's an ongoing journey. You have to stay a student, you have to seek out that disrupted disruption in change, you have to leap fearlessly in the dark, not once at the beginning of your career, but over and over and over again.

So let's go back to Marcus Aurelis. We can again imagine him staggering under the weight of one crisis after another. And yeah, he tried to tell himself it was fortunate that he was better him than someone else, but it would have been impossible for him not to struggle, not to feel like he was falling short. And he writes in meditations,

not to be ashamed to ask for help. He says, like soldiers storming a wall, we have a mission to accomplish. And if you've been wounded and need a comrade to pull you up, he says, so what? So it's not just the putting on a brave face, it's not just pushing forward. Courage is also asking for help. This is a little book I like to read to my young children.

It's called The Boy, The Fox, The Force and the Moan. He says, asking for help isn't giving up. It is refusing to give up, right? You don't get help. You're too afraid to ask for, right? You don't get help that you don't ask for. And if you are afraid to do this, again, you will not become what you are capable of becoming. Are you brave enough to be vulnerable? Can you let people in? This is Brunei Brown's question. Darren Greatley is not just seeking ambitious goals,

but can you be vulnerable? Can you be open? Can you let people in? Can you collaborate, can you connect as a human being? The last few years have been very hard. And the next few years will be very hard. Life is hard, being a leader is hard, and it's lonely.

Sometimes you can't make it on your own, and you're not supposed to make it on your own, right? That's the whole point. And no one should be seen as an unbreakable. Nancy Sherman, who is an instructor here for many years, a wonderful writer and thinker about stoicism and her book, Stowe Gwerer. She talks about how we get the concept of Stowe

Sism wrong. There's a difference between uppercase stoicism and lowercase stoicism. Lowercase stoicism means has no emotions. Never feels anything. Is a machine. Is the prototypical warrior cannot be be wounded but that is not real Hemingway and a farewell to arms he says if you bring so much courage into this world the world has to kill you to break you

And it will kill you. He says but he says the world breaks every one of us and after we can become strong in the broken places But those who will not break it kills, right? If you think that you are too strong to ask for help, if you are above it, then it is beneath you, eventually you will meet the challenge that does break you. The unstoppable force will meet the unmovable object, the force always wins. And so the courage to be vulnerable to ask for help to put yourself out there is a key part of becoming your best of doing things that really matter. There's a Japanese art form called Kansubi, which basically takes beautiful porcelain that

shatters that's broken because it is fragile, and it glues it together, but it doesn't use ordinary glue, it doesn't try to cover up the cracks. It fills the cracks with gold or silver. It makes them strong and beautiful and more valuable to broken places. That's what Hemingway is talking about. Adi Murphy, the most decorated soldier in American history, he writes in his memoirs from Hellenback.

The last line, he says, life faces us. And I swear to myself that I will measure up to it. He says I may be branded by war, but I will not be defeated by it. Hemingway himself says it's defeated and destroyed or not the same thing. We can be defeated, but we choose if we're destroyed.

We choose if we can't be resilient enough to come back to ask for help, to collaborate, to be vulnerable enough to admit where we are struggling. This is Kyrie Irving on his way to destroying the possibly his third championship team. It's been a fun ride watching Kyrie. He doesn't take the vaccine, misses most of the season, drives away James Harden, says,

I'm doing what's best for me, so I won't get vaccinated for COVID. Someone should probably remind him that he plays a team sport. Life is a team sport. Society is a team sport. The Navy is a team sport. America is a team sport. Society is a team sport. The Navy is a team sport. America is a team country.

That's what this is, right? And as we think about courage, told you it wasn't so simple as just putting your ass on the line. Harry has put himself put his ass on the line. Of course, it's cost him millions of dollars. It's damaged his reputation. It's subjected him to endless amounts of criticism.

He's lost most of how many seasons will he get, right? So he has taken a stand and you might think that that's what courage is about, taking a stand. But it's more complicated than that. Courage is putting your ass on the line. But for what? Lord Byron says, "'Tis the cause makes all that degrades or halos courage in its fall. So the courage to risk your career, your reputation, championship millions of dollars, to become a vector for a virus that's killed a million people. I'm in there, service members in the Navy right now,

they're hindering America's military preparedness for that very right, to be the vector of a disease that has killed a million people that up until very recently was killed a thousand people a day. Courage is not just risking, but for what are you risking that? And of course Kyrie should probably check himself, he also believes the world is flat. I contrast that that courage with Dr. Catalan Carrico. She comes to America, she's an immigrant from Hungary.

She escapes Communism with $900 stuffed in her daughter's teddy bear. She works for almost 30 years in the battles of academia. She never makes more than $60,000 a year. Her work is constantly questioned. She has to fight for every tiny grant. She has to constantly reapply for her job. Everyone thinks her line of inquiry is pointless, that it's not going anywhere that she's chasing the dead end.

And it wasn't until 2020 when suddenly people thought, we should see what they're doing with mRNA vaccine research. And she becomes perhaps the most important scientist of her generation, like that. Many years of doubt, many years of risk, many years of questioning, content to do her best, content to show up each day and do it and not care about anything else.

So it's about what you risk your reputation or your bodies for. Of course, this is Franklin Buchanan, this is Matthew Mori, controversial heroes here at the Naval Academy. You can imagine it was risky to give up everything, to give up your appointments, to risk debt in the U.S. Civil War. For what caused did they choose to do that?

The worst cause that you could possibly imagine. They were immensely courageous to take that risk, but it's a hollow courage, right? Not a hollowed courage, but a hollow courage courage because the cause makes all. Lieutenant Bradley Snyder, who gave me some great thoughts as I was writing my book on courage, not just an American hero but an incredible, paralympic athlete. He said, look, it's not just about throwing yourself on the grenade. It only matters if you're throwing yourself on the grenade to protect someone else, right? If doing that will save someone else, otherwise it's kind of stupid, right? How and why the cause makes all?

Cicero says that the Stoics define courage as the virtue which champions the cause of the right. No one has attained true glory. Courage is ultimately about what you risk it for, right? The cause makes all. This is John Lewis, John Lewis, and we're great American heroes as well. He's arrested many, many times in the pursuit of civil rights. He's beaten many, many times. I think he's arrested almost 50 times. He's beaten almost to death on the Edmund Pettis Bridge. If there was anyone that had cause or justification to be bitter, to be cynical, to doubt, question what America was,

or what America could become. It would be this man, because he experienced it all firsthand. Imagine being beaten nearly to death, trying to use a bathroom in a bus station. That is your constitutional God-given right. And that's what he experiences. And yet, he's not bitter. In fact, he is always hopeful. This is Ellen Wilson, who beat him to death nearly in that bathroom, who decades later, when John Lewis became a congressman, looked in his soul and decided that he knew

he was wrong and that he was going to own it and he was going to apologize. And he wanted to meet John Lewis in person. John Lewis was brave enough to meet him in person, but Brave was still to forgive and accept him. And he would write in Ellen Wilson's book, as it happens, Ellen Wilson's middle name was Hope. John would write, with faith and hope, keep your eyes on the primes. This idea of faith and hope, of not giving in,

of continuing to believe is everything, because there is a lot that can make us cynical. This is the first black graduate, the U.S. Naval Academy, Wesley Brown, it's in the class with Jimmy Carter. They run cross-country together. It's unfair to say that he's the first graduate, because it almost diminishes the severity

of what he went through, And people like him went through. He was the first person, the first black man, to be allowed to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy. Ready said, I wanted to quit almost every single day because he wasn't set up for success, but he persevered through. He made it. This is Elizabeth Anne Rowe, first woman graduate.

This is Janine Mills, first black female graduate. Both of these women, younger than my mother. You can look at American history and be depressed, to be disappointed, cynical, skeptical, disgusted, but it's more than that, it's easy to do that. It's easy to criticize, it's easy to doubt, it's easy to say that it's systemic and impossible and a lost cause.

But where would we be if those three people had done that? Where would we be if any of the people we're talking about had indulged in that, right? Hope is the most important thing. Napoleon said battles are more often lost by the abandonment of hope than by loss of blood. That hope is that key force that drives us forward, that allows us to continue.

And I would agree the world is a scary place. There's not that many causes for hope. And yet, we can also look at the past. We can find, look unflinchingly at what we've gotten wrong and where we screwed up and find hope in the people who persevered through that despite it, who didn't lose hope, who kept going. It's easy to say it's hopeless,

but where, again, where would we be if we did do that? It's easy to give in to darkness, but where would we be if we did that? Where would we be if everyone gave up? Certainly that wouldn't make anything better. Nicholas Mosley, the novelist, he says, there's a subject nowadays, which is taboo in the way that sexuality once was taboo,

which is to talk about life as if it had any meaning. I quoted Lon Wong-Thaw earlier, my favorite poem, The Sohom of Life, who says, Life is real, life is earnest. I think the best people are real and earnest and hopeful and believe in something, believe in the future. Even thinking about being your best, right, to say, just always do your best. That feels cliche. It feels a little bit lame.

It feels like something your sixth grade soccer coach would tell you, but that's the point. It is a little cringe, but you have to be earnest. You have to actually believe it, because the world is changed by those people, not the people who cynically denigrate that exact idea. You cannot give up hope with faith and hope, as John Lewis said, keep your eyes on the prize.

Whatever that prize, whatever that destiny is for you, I cannot say, but you have to keep your eye on that. You have to believe in your ability to make that real. After January 6th, I sent an email to General Mattis who I've gotten to know. He's a student of the Stoics. He carried marks, really, it's with him all over the world

and all his different deployments. And I said, look at what's happening, what is going on. And he said, hang in there, it's always darkest before the dawn. Then he caught himself and he said, although my friend John McCain would remind me that sometimes it's darkest right before it gets even darker. But he said, hang in there, it's always darkest

before the dawn. And I thought, you know, considering all the things he has seen in his decades of service, all the dark places all over the world, if he still has hope, what excuse do I have? And I said that to him, and then he replied with a note that I thought I would leave all of you with. To me, it is the mark of courage.

It is what is country. The free world needs all of you to carry forward with. He says, keep the faith. Hold the line. Physically, morally, in all forms of courage. Keep the faith. Hold the line. Thank you very much.

Spend it honor. APPLAUSE I'd like to offer you this. Oh, thank you so much. As a gift. I appreciate it. From you this. Oh, thank you so much. As a gift. I appreciate it. From the class of 2022 to the next.

Oh, I got to open it. All right. Like the four virtues, the cardinal points of a compass, when it's in the right direction. So this is lovely. Thank you very much. compass, awareness, and the right direction. So this is lovely. Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to the Daily Stove podcast. I just wanted to say we so appreciate it. We love serving you. It's amazing to us that over 30 million people have downloaded these episodes

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