Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave (The Stoic Virtues Series)

Know-how is a help. But it’s preparation that makes you brave.

Nobody starts by leaking the Pentagon Papers. It’s always less dramatic than that. The French speak of petites actions—those first small steps, the builders of momentum, the little things that add up. We would do well to think of that concept when we feel afraid or when we despair in the face of an enormous problem. We don’t need to lead a grand ch

It’s ironic, the Stoics would say, that for all our selfish cares about ourselves, we seem to value other people’s opinions about us more than our own. The freed slave Epictetus says, “If you wish to improve, be content to appear clueless or stupid.” Can you do that? You’ll have to.

By definition, each of us is original. Our DNA has never existed before on this planet. No one has ever had our unique set of experiences. Yet what do we do with this heritage? We push it away. We choose not to be ourselves. We choose to go along, to not raise any eyebrows.

Seneca would say that he actually pitied people who have never experienced misfortune. “You have passed through life without an opponent,” he said. “No one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you.”

In the fable “The Golden Key,” the Old Man of the Earth shows a young boy the reality of the world, that there is no progress without risk.

Of course, just because you think you can do something doesn’t mean you can. But if you don’t believe you can do something, if you’re afraid of it, it’s very unlikely that you will be able to do it. Whether that’s walking again or inventing something—if you decide it can’t be done, it’s not happening. Not by you, anyway.

But better to be pessimistic and prepared than the alternative. It was Aristotle who said that the optimistic are the most vulnerable, because “when the result does not turn out as expected, they run away.” Foresee the worst to perform the best.

If fear is to be a driving force in your life, fear what you’ll miss. Fear what happens if you don’t act. Fear what they’ll think of you down the road, for having dared so little. Think of what you’re leaving on the table. Think of the terrifying costs of playing small.