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

by Ryan Holiday

There is a famous story of Alexander the Great and a famously difficult horse named Bucephalus—a horse that even his father, King Philip II of Macedon, could not break. While others had tried sheer force and whips and ropes, a young Alexander succeeded by lightly mounting and simply hanging onto the racing and wild animal until the horse was calm. Having exhausted himself, Bucephalus finally submitted to his rider’s influence. Alexander, having taken Bucephalus’s energy and used it against him, would ride into battle on that faithful horse for the next twenty years. Now what of your obstacles? Yes, sometimes we need to learn from Amelia Earhart and just take action. But we also have to be ready to see that restraint might be the best action for us to take. Gandhi’s campaign against bigotry and the British lasted for decades—more often than not, he was reining in his supporters instead of spurring them toward some decisive action. He understood it would take time for the British to beat themselves, for public opinion to be changed by each mistake he baited them into.