Courage Is Calling

I’m Ryan Holiday. I’ve written now 11 or 12 books—I don’t even know—about Stoic philosophy. I’ve been lucky enough to speak all over the world: to the NBA, the NFL, special forces, sitting senators. I know you’re busy. Nobody has as much time to read as they like. So what I thought I would do in today’s episode is give you my new book. If you haven’t had time to read it, I will give it to you in less than five minutes.

I don’t care if there’s spoilers in here. I don’t care if it means you don’t buy it. What I care about is courage—and a world in which courage is more commonplace.

Courage is one of the four Stoic virtues. We call these the cardinal virtues because it comes from the Latin word cardos, which means hinge. These are pivotal things upon which the good life hinges.

C.S. Lewis says, “Courage is all the other virtues at the testing point.” But what is courage? Some people say that there’s two kinds of courage—there’s moral courage and physical courage. My argument is that actually these are the same kinds of courage. That courage is, at the simplest level, just putting your ass on the line—for something, for someone. Figuratively. Literally.

It’s putting yourself out there. It’s taking risks.

The first part is the idea of fear, right? We’re in this battle with fear. I talk about Florence Nightingale. Florence Nightingale for 16 years ignores this call. Comes from God. It comes from her inner genius or spirit. But it says, “You need to be of service.”

She comes from a rich family. Her parents don’t want her to do this. And she rejects the call, right? We talk about the hero’s journey—she rejects the call to courage, to greatness, for 16 years. Finally, the call says: Are you going to let what other people think deter you from my service?

She realizes, no. She goes into nursing. She becomes a great hero. Saves hundreds of thousands of lives. Revolutionizes nursing.

There’s a reason that the most repeated phrase in the Bible is: “Do not be afraid.” Been afraid for centuries. For thousands of years. We have to get over this fear to do what we need to do. Everything we need in this life is on that other side of that.

Then—courage. Courage is when you get over fear. It’s the triumph over fear. It’s pushing through that fear to put yourself out there. To go. It’s to break through and do that courageous, scary thing.

And we all know—every great thing was scary at first. No one said, “Oh, that’s an amazing idea, you should absolutely do it.” They said, “Don’t do it. It’s not going to work.” And someone had to push through.

It’s the idea of beating the odds. If everyone listened to the odds, we’d never have progress. There’s this great quote that progress depends on the unreasonable man. The reasonable person bends to the odds. Bends to the doubts. The unreasonable person says, “I believe I can do it. I’m going to try to do it. I’m going to push through and do it.”

So we need courageous people in this life.

The third part of the book—this is the most essential part. This is the level beyond courage: heroism.

The highest level is Maya Moore leaving the WNBA, where she is equally dominant, to help free a man wrongly imprisoned. Right? Heroism is when you use courage—when you put yourself out there—for someone or something else. It’s about selflessness.

We understand why people are scared to risk things. We also understand why people risk things—it’s to gain things. But what about the 300 Spartans who marched out against impossible odds just to hold the Persians off for a few days? To buy their countrymen some time? That’s the heroic level. And that’s the most important thing.

Bravery in those few seconds is great—but what about the bravery when the person knows they’re not even going to get to experience the benefits of that bravery?

So I see courage, then, as that kind of three-part process: First—the battle with fear. Second—the struggle to be courageous. And then finally—the call to this higher level, this transcendent level.

That’s what we’re trying to get. That’s the concept of the new book. It’s the first in my four virtues series. I hope that’s a taste for you.

And anyway, I’m so proud of this new book. I will give you a signed copy of it. We’ll give away five signed copies to anyone who fills out the link below. You fill out the link—we’ll do a contest, we’ll pick a winner, I’ll sign them for you, and we’ll mail you the copy. No purchase necessary. We’re going to pick five winners. But the only way to enter is to sign up at the link below.

Give your email address. You’ll be entered. And you could win a signed copy of Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave.

Every day now, for five years, I have written an email about Stoicism. It’s the largest community of Stoics ever before in history. You can sign up at DailyStoic.com — daily email. It’s totally free.