The Obstacle is the Way Buchzusammenfassung - das Wichtigste aus The Obstacle is the Way

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Zusammenfassung von The Obstacle is the Way

Name: The Obstacle is the Way
Rating: 4.5 (625 reviews)
Author: Ryan Holiday

Ryan Holiday

The Timeless Art of Turning Trials Into Triumph

4.5 (625 Bewertungen)

31 Min.

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Simplify Podcast Stoicism Success

Inhaltsübersicht

The Obstacle is the Way
in 9 Kernaussagen verstehen

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Kernaussage 1 von 9

What’s in it for me? Discover how to transform even the greatest obstacles into advantages.

This Blink boils down to a single key message: each obstacle, each impediment, each thing that seems to be blocking the path to success is itself the path to success. In other words, every obstacle, everything that seems to be standing in your way, is itself the way. Hence the title.

Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher, put it thus: “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”

This isn’t about seeing the silver lining in every situation. It’s not about being a cup-half-full kind of person. You don’t have to throw on a pair of rose-colored glasses. Seeing the opportunities hidden in every obstacle is not about being relentlessly optimistic.

Rather, it’s about being clear-eyed, logical, reasonable, prepared and pragmatic – prepared for whatever life might throw at you and pragmatic both in how you perceive your circumstances and in how you respond to them. It’s not about ignoring obstacles; it’s about approaching them in the most effective way.

This Blink has three sections, just like the book: Perception, Action, and Will. These are the three ingredients to flipping any situation, to taking a negative and turning it into a positive.

Perception is the starting point: learning to regard what most people would call an obstacle – an economic downturn, a traffic jam, a personal disability, anything – as a path to success.

Action is next: perceiving the path is the beginning, but it won’t bring you much unless you act, unless you take that path.

And then there’s Will: the energy, the determination, the will to stay on the path, to keep walking even when the going gets tough.

All of this is simple enough. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to put into practice. So let’s look at some examples of people who’ve done it – people who’ve taken disadvantages, setbacks, hardships, inauspicious circumstances and flipped them over, revealing what they truly were: hidden pathways to success.

Perception: the opportunity in adversity.

John D. Rockefeller, the famous oil baron, learned the art of perception in the crucible of crisis.

In 1855, Rockefeller was sixteen years old. He was just starting out as a bookkeeper, with aspirations to become an investor. Two years later, the Panic of 1857 struck, sending America spiraling into a crippling financial crisis – the greatest market depression in history. All around Rockefeller, people began abandoning careers in finance. They were afraid, panicked, perceiving what was happening as a horrible disaster.

Rockefeller could have done the same. He could have panicked, scrambled to switch careers. But he didn’t. Rather than losing his nerve, he decided to treat this economic cataclysm as an opportunity to learn, to observe, to figure out what he might do right in the future by watching what people were doing wrong in the present.

In other words, he leveraged the power of perception. Perception is all about the meaning you impose on events. Is a financial crisis a terrifying disaster, something to run from? Or is it a learning opportunity, something to observe? It’s up to you. One way of perceiving it deprives you of power. The other way gives you power.

And we all know what kind of power Rockefeller accrued. By the time he was 40, Rockefeller alone controlled 90 percent of oil refineries in the United States. The secret to his success was an investment strategy driven by level-headed logic – not reactive emotions. He didn’t invest because the market told him to, or because everyone else was doing it. And when he did make investments, he was able to remain confident and see things through, even as others sold their shares out of fear. Rockefeller was wise, resilient, adaptable, and completely calm amid the chaos. These characteristics constituted the foundation on which he built his empire.

So how can we be a bit more like Rockefeller? Well, here are three tips. If you’re faced with a major obstacle, something that’s truly daunting or intimidating or frightening, try to:

Focus on what you can control; ignore what you can’t
Remain objective; don’t get caught up in subjective emotions or projections
Stay in the present moment; don’t spiral into regrets about the past or worries about the future

You already possess the qualities necessary to perceive the opportunity in any obstacle: logic, objectivity, reason, cool-headedness. Deploying them is just a matter of discipline, practice, and habit.

Perception: recognizing your power.

In the 1960s the then celebrated boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter was accused of a triple homicide. He was innocent. He’d done nothing wrong, let alone murder three people. Still, he was given three life sentences – and sent to prison.

Perception: altering your perspective.

During the Peloponnesian War, the general Pericles and his men were at sea when, suddenly, darkness fell like a curtain. A solar eclipse had caused day to turn to night. Pericles’s soldiers, confused, surprised, began to panic. But their leader, Pericles, remained calm.

Action: the power of discipline.

Recognizing the power you have in every situation, defanging daunting situations by shifting your perspective, realizing that a problem is only a problem if you perceive it that way: this is the beginning. Next comes action.

Action: trust the process.

Let’s take a moment and dissect Demosthenes’s process. He had a big goal: reclaim his stolen inheritance. But he didn’t immediately try to accomplish that goal. He didn’t take them to court as soon as he could. He followed a process: focusing all his energies on the small steps that would get him from point A to point Z. It seems obvious enough – but it’s all too common for people, when pursuing some huge goal, to try to skip the small steps, to jump from A to Z without taking care of B, C, D, and all the rest.

Action: it might not work.

We’re about to move to the next section: Will. Before we do, though, a quick reminder: it’s not always going to work. You may flip an obstacle with ease, shifting your perspective, perceiving it in the most advantageous way possible, seizing your power. You may then take correct action: setting a goal, breaking it down into individual steps, executing each step with excellence and total focus. Still: it might not work.

Will: accept what you can’t change, and change what you can.

Will is often confused with really, really wanting something. People think: If I want this thing really badly, then I’ve got it: will. But true will has more to do with acceptance than with force. It is our final refuge in the face of trying circumstances. It’s an internal power – the thing that enables us to do what we discussed in the last chapter: accept, with grace and humility, what we can’t change; be resilient enough, and flexible enough, to move on when we don’t get our way.

Will: be ready to persevere.

After fighting in Troy for ten long years, Odysseus, the protagonist of Homer’s epic poem, the Odyssey, finally sets sail for home. What happens then? Ten years of obstacles. On his ill-fated journey home, he is held prisoner, faces numerous temptations, loses all of his men, encounters dangerous whirlpools, and even fights off a cyclops and a six-headed monster. Eventually, though, after 20 years of war and hardship, he does get home, reunited at last with his wife and son.

Will: meditate on death and get ready to begin again.

It may sound morbid – but we’re all going to die. Not today, you might think – and that may be true. But each day that we don’t die, death draws nearer.

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Worum geht es in The Obstacle is the Way?

In The Obstacle is the Way (2014), Ryan Holiday brings the age-old wisdom of Stoic philosophy up to date. By examining the struggles of historical figures of inspiring resilience, Holiday shows not only how obstacles couldn’t stop them, but more importantly, how these people thrived precisely because of the obstacles. Holiday shows how we can turn obstacles to our advantage, and how we can transform apparent roadblocks into success, both in our businesses and our personal lives.

Wer The Obstacle is the Way lesen sollte

Anyone working for a business during tough economic times
Anyone working at a start-up facing great challenges to get off the ground
Anyone who wants to learn how to better deal with inevitable hardships

Über den Autor

Ryan Holiday is an American author, media strategist, and bookstore owner. He’s also the host of the Daily Stoic podcast. His other books include The Daily Stoic, The Obstacle is the Way, and Courage is Calling.

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