Much of the advice we’ve been told about achievement is logical, earnest…and downright wrong. In Barking Up the Wrong Tree, Eric Barker reveals the extraordinary science behind what actually determines success and most importantly, how anyone can achieve it. You’ll learn:
• Why valedictorians rarely become millionaires, and how your biggest weakness might actually be your greatest strength
Ryan Holiday, The 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
Such behavior! People don't want to praise their contemporaries whose lives they actually share, but hold great expectations for the praise of future generations — people they haven't met or ever will! This is akin to being upset that past generations didn't praise you. — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.18
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
- Theodore Roosevelt, Excerpt from the speech “Citizenship In A Republic”
delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910
Ryan Holiday, The 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
Trust me, real joy is a serious thing. Do you think someone can, in the charming expression, blithely dismiss death with an easy disposition? Or swing open the door to poverty, keep pleasures in check, or meditate on the endurance of suffering? The one who is comfortable with turning these thoughts over is truly full of joy that I would wish for you to possess. — Seneca, Moral Letters, 111.2
