
The Obstacle Is the Way
The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph
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Buy Now for $23.99
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Narrated by:
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Ryan Holiday
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Written by:
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Ryan Holiday
About this listen
#1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller
The Obstacle is the Way has become a cult classic, beloved by men and women around the world who apply its wisdom to become more successful at whatever they do.
Its many fans include a former governor and movie star (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a hip hop icon (LL Cool J), an Irish tennis pro (James McGee), an NBC sportscaster (Michele Tafoya), and the coaches and players of winning teams like the New England Patriots, Seattle Seahawks, Chicago Cubs, and University of Texas men’s basketball team.
The book draws its inspiration from stoicism, the ancient Greek philosophy of enduring pain or adversity with perseverance and resilience. Stoics focus on the things they can control, let go of everything else, and turn every new obstacle into an opportunity to get better, stronger, tougher. As Marcus Aurelius put it nearly 2000 years ago: “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
Ryan Holiday shows us how some of the most successful people in history—from John D. Rockefeller to Amelia Earhart to Ulysses S. Grant to Steve Jobs—have applied stoicism to overcome difficult or even impossible situations. Their embrace of these principles ultimately mattered more than their natural intelligence, talents, or luck.
If you’re feeling frustrated, demoralized, or stuck in a rut, this book can help you turn your problems into your biggest advantages. And along the way it will inspire you with dozens of true stories of the greats from every age and era.
©2023 Ryan Holiday (P)2023 Penguin AudioYou may also enjoy...
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- Narrated by: Ryan Holiday
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- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
All great leaders, thinkers, artists, athletes, and visionaries share one indelible quality. It enables them to conquer their tempers. To avoid distraction and discover great insights. To achieve happiness and do the right thing. Ryan Holiday calls it stillness - to be steady while the world spins around you. In this book, he outlines a path for achieving this ancient, but urgently necessary way of living.
-
-
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Written by: Ryan Holiday
-
Ego Is the Enemy
- Written by: Ryan Holiday
- Narrated by: Ryan Holiday
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"While the history books are filled with tales of obsessive visionary geniuses who remade the world in their images with sheer, almost irrational force, I've found that history is also made by individuals who fought their egos at every turn, who eschewed the spotlight, and who put their higher goals above their desire for recognition." (From the prologue)
-
-
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Written by: Ryan Holiday
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- Fortune Favors the Brave
- Written by: Ryan Holiday
- Narrated by: Ryan Holiday
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Almost every religion, spiritual practice, philosophy and person grapples with fear. The most repeated phrase in the Bible is “Be not afraid.” The ancient Greeks spoke of phobos, panic and terror. It is natural to feel fear, the Stoics believed, but it cannot rule you. Courage, then, is the ability to rise above fear, to do what’s right, to do what’s needed, to do what is true. And so it rests at the heart of the works of Marcus Aurelius, Aristotle, and CS Lewis, alongside temperance, justice, and wisdom.
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-
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Written by: Ryan Holiday
-
Right Thing, Right Now
- Good Values. Good Character. Good Deeds.
- Written by: Ryan Holiday
- Narrated by: Ryan Holiday
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the ancients, everything worth pursuing in life flowed from a strong sense of justice—or one’s commitment to doing the right thing, no matter how difficult. In order to be courageous, wise, and self-disciplined, one must begin with justice. The influence of the modern world often tells us that acting justly is optional. Holiday argues that that’s simply untrue—and the fact that so few people today have the strength to stand by their convictions explains much about why we’re so unhappy.
-
-
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- By darcycyb on 2025-01-29
Written by: Ryan Holiday
-
Relentless
- From Good to Great to Unstoppable
- Written by: Tim S. Grover, Shari Wenk
- Narrated by: Pete Simonelli
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For more than two decades, legendary trainer Tim Grover has taken the greats - Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, and hundreds of relentless competitors in sports, business, and every walk of life - and made them greater. Now, he reveals what it takes to achieve total mental and physical dominance, showing you how to be relentless and achieve whatever you desire.
-
-
Great book.... Wondering how to apply it
- By MG on 2021-07-24
Written by: Tim S. Grover, and others
-
A Guide to the Good Life
- The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy
- Written by: William B. Irvine
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
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-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the great fears many of us face is that despite all our effort and striving, we will discover at the end that we have wasted our life. In A Guide to the Good Life, William B. Irvine plumbs the wisdom of Stoic philosophy, one of the most popular and successful schools of thought in ancient Rome, and shows how its insight and advice are still remarkably applicable to modern lives. In A Guide to the Good Life, Irvine offers a refreshing presentation of Stoicism, showing how this ancient philosophy can still direct us toward a better life.
-
-
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What the critics say
“The book on stoicism that’s taking the NFL by storm.”–Sports Illustrated
"The best one I've read. Ryan Holiday is brilliant. If I had read The Obstacle Is the Way sooner, a few things might have been different."–Rory McIlroy, 2x PGA Champion
“Follow these precepts and you will revolutionize your life. Read this book!”—Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art and Gates of Fire
Changes the lens through which you see the world
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Good, but too American
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Loved every minute of it!
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Obstacles are the way!
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Would recommend this for anyone.
Great book
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I enjoyed it. Listened to it during a difficult time in my life, it helped me understand and put things into perspective.
Perspective
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Opportunity at Every Turn
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Spectacular job Ryan
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Impactful
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Profound
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