The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

by Ryan Holiday

Whatever we face, we have a choice: Will we be blocked by obstacles, or will we advance through and over them?

Great individuals, like great companies, find a way to transform weakness into strength.

“The obstacle in the path becomes the path. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.”

we can see opportunity in every disaster, and transform that negative situation into an education, a skill set, or a fortune.

This can’t harm me—I might not have wanted it to happen, but I decide how it will affect me. No one else has the right.

There is no good or bad without us, there is only perception. There is the event itself and the story we tell ourselves about what it means.

There is always a countermove, always an escape or a way through, so there is no reason to get worked up. No one said it would be easy and, of course, the stakes are high, but the path is there for those ready to take it.

Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become the next moment. By the same token, every human being has the freedom to change at any instant.

Perspective is everything.

“There is good in everything, if only we look for it.”

Failure shows us the way—by showing us what isn’t the way.

Nothing can ever prevent us from trying. Ever.

In every situation, that which blocks our path actually presents a new path with a new part of us.

Will is our internal power, which can never be affected by the outside world.

The Fates guide the person who accepts them and hinder the person who resists them. —CLEANTHES

When the cause of our problem lies outside of us, we are better for accepting it and moving on.

My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it . . . but love it. —NIETZSCHE

To do great things, we need to be able to endure tragedy and setbacks. We’ve got to love what we do and all that it entails, good and bad. We have to learn to find joy in every single thing that happens.

I feel great about it. Because if it happened, then it was meant to happen, and I am glad that it did when it did. I am meant to make the best of it.

We don’t get to choose what happens to us, but we can always choose how we feel about it. And why on earth would you choose to feel anything but good?

If the event must occur, Amor fati (a love of fate) is the response.

Face forward, and face it with a smug little grin.