When intelligent people read, they ask themselves a simple question: What do I plan to do with this information?
Ryan HolidayOur first idea is a grand opening, a big launch, a press release, or major media coverage. We default to thinking we need an advertising budget. Our delusion is that we should be Transformers and not The Blair Witch Project.
Ryan HolidayWhere the head goes, the body follows. Perception precedes action. Right action follows the right perspective.
Ryan HolidayYou know what’s better than building things up in your imagination? Building things up in real life.
Ryan HolidayProblems are rarely as bad as we think-or rather, they are precisely as bad as we think.
Ryan HolidayTo 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.
Ryan HolidayNo one will argue that writing is an easy profession. Getting someone to pay you for your words isn’t easy. But there are strategies you can use to simplify the process and transform what you can produce.
Ryan HolidayI run 5 miles every night. It’s where I go to digest my day, hash out the multitude of information that’s been poured into me in the last wild six months or so, and to try and condense it down to some sort of cohesive strategy to live my life by.
Ryan HolidayIt’s okay to be discouraged. It’s not okay to quit. To know you want to quit but to plant your feet and keep inching closer until you take the impenetrable fortress you’ve decided to lay siege to in your own life—that’s persistence.
Ryan HolidayTrue will is quiet humility, resilience, and flexibility; the other kind of will is weakness disguised by bluster and ambition.
Ryan HolidayYou cannot have your news instantly and have it done well. You cannot have your news reduced to 140 characters or less without losing large parts of it. You cannot manipulate the news but not expect it to be manipulated against you. You cannot have your news for free; you can only obscure the costs. If as a culture we can learn this lesson, and if we can learn to love the hard work, we will save ourselves much trouble and collateral damage. We must remember: There is no easy way.
Ryan HolidayWhat is known can't jerk us around unwittingly. Before anything can be resolved, the implicit must be made into the explicit.
Ryan HolidayThe Germans have a word for it: Sitzfleisch. Staying power. Winning by sticking your ass to the seat and not leaving until after it's over.
Ryan HolidayOrdinary people shy away form negative situations, just as they do with failure. They do their best to avoid trouble. What great people do is the opposite. They are their best in these situations. They turn personal tragedy or misfortune - really anything, everything - to their advantage.
Ryan HolidayAn entrepreneur is someone with faith in their ability to make something where there was nothing before.
Ryan HolidayWhat I’ve learned most clearly from blogs is that the majority of them write about the problems from the outside for a reason—because they are missing the abilities that allow people to move to the inside.
Ryan HolidayAm I saying this because I want to prove how smart I am or am I saying this because it needs to be said?
Ryan HolidayDiscipline in perception lets you clearly see the advantage and the proper course of action in every situation—without the pestilence of panic or fear.
Ryan HolidayWe decide what we will make of each and every situation. We decide whether we’ll break or whether we’ll resist.
Ryan Holiday