1: Earlier this week, we looked at how General Charles De Gaulle, one man with courage, made a majority.

“It’s inspiring,” writes Ryan Holiday in Courage is Calling.  “It’s also dangerous.”

What if the person is wrong?  Or an egomaniac?  What if their cause isn’t just?  

“This is how despots are made and murderous regimes are built.  This is how religious sects become doomsday cults,” writes Ryan.  One person “can just … continue reading

“What keeps you up at night?” Marine Corps General James Mattis was once asked by a television reporter, Ryan Holiday recounts in Courage is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave.

“I keep people awake at night,” he replied.  

1: That is the answer of every warrior.  Before and since.  “A philosophy of offense.  Of initiative.  Of intimidating the enemy rather than being intimidated, of striking fear—striking, period—rather than being struck by it,” writes Ryan.… continue reading

In June 1944, more than two million Allied troops landed in France. By August, Paris was liberated. “It had been four long years in the desert, a darkness endured into a bright dawn,” writes Ryan Holiday in Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave.

1: “Paris! Paris outraged! Paris broken! Paris martyred! But Paris liberated!” proclaimed General Charles de Gaulle, the leader of the French resistance. Yesterday, … continue reading

1: On June 14th, Hitler’s Nazi troops marched into Paris. As France fell to Germany, “it was overrun not just by tanks but by the fear of its own leaders who quietly and quickly negotiated a surrender with the worst aggressor in modern history,” writes Ryan Holiday in Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave.

While France was surrendering, French General Charles De Gaulle boarded a small plane to … continue reading