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

by Ryan Holiday

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.

Perceptions can be managed. Actions can be directed.

True will is quiet humility, resilience, and flexibility; the other kind of will is weakness disguised by bluster and ambition. See which lasts longer under the hardest of obstacles.

The obstacle becomes the way.

First, see clearly. Next, act correctly. Finally, endure and accept the world as it is.

To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school . . . it is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically. —HENRY DAVID THOREAU