1: What is the one strategy that is the most effective to overcome the seemingly endless problems that affect us as individuals and as a group?

Perseverance.

“Hold on and hold steady,” Ryan Holiday tells us in The Obstacle is the Way. “It works in good situations and in bad situations, dangerous situations and seemingly hopeless situations.”

Perseverance.

Odysseus leaves Troy for his home in Ithaca after ten long … continue reading

“My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it… but love it.” -Nietzsche

1: Thomas Edison was at home one night after another busy day in his laboratory. Suddenly, a man appeared at the door. A fire had broken out at Edison’s … continue reading

Getting better at getting better is what RiseWithDrew is all about.

Monday through Thursday, we explore ideas from authors, thought leaders, and exemplary organizations. On Friday, I share something about myself or what we are working on at PCI.

This week we’ve looked at the importance of will in Ryan Holiday’s brilliant book The Obstacle is the Way. What is will? Ryan tells us will is our internal … continue reading

“In the meantime, cling tooth and nail to the following rule: not to give in to adversity, not to trust prosperity, and always take full note of fortune’s habit of behaving just as she pleases.” -Seneca

1: “Because he has become more myth than man, most people are unaware that Abraham Lincoln battled crippling depression his entire life,” writes Ryan Holiday in The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art … continue reading

“Choose not to be harmed—and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed—and you haven’t been.”  -Marcus Aurelius

1: The year was 1966.  Rubin “Hurricane” Carter was a contender for the middleweight boxing title.  

Then, he experienced a bewildering fall.  At the height of his career, he was “wrongly accused of a horrific crime he did not commit: triple homicide. He went on trial, and a biased, bogus verdict followed: three life … continue reading

1: Don’t just stand there.  Do something.

Really?  Not always, Ryan Holiday writes in The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph.

Certain situations call for a different approach.

As in: Don’t just do something.  Stand there.

“Sometimes, staying put, going sideways, or moving backward is actually the best way to eliminate what blocks or impedes our path,” Ryan writes.

Yesterday, we looked … continue reading

How has University of Alabama coach Nick Saban built “perhaps the most dominant dynasty in the history of college football?” asks Ryan Holiday in The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph.

1: He doesn’t focus on winning, at least not the way other coaches do. Instead, he teaches “the process.”

“Don’t think about winning the SEC Championship. Don’t think about the National Championship,” … continue reading

1: Steve Jobs‘ father prided himself on being a craftsman. He would finish the back of the cabinets he built even though they would be hidden against the wall.  

Steve learned early in life to: “Respect the craft and make something beautiful,” writes Ryan Holiday in The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph.

Steve adopted this philosophy as the founder and wildly … continue reading

1: The year was 1863. General Ulysses S. Grant was stuck.

For a year, he and his troops had tried to crack the defenses of Vicksburg. The city sat high on the cliffs of the Mississippi, providing a “stranglehold on the most important river in the country,” writes Ryan Holiday in The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph.

Ulysses had attacked Vicksburg head-on. … continue reading

1: The year was 1878. Thomas Edison was a man on a mission.  

Day and night, he experimented with more than six thousand different filaments in his quest to discover the incandescent light bulb.  

After spending a year in Thomas’ lab, Nikola Tesla commented: “If Edison needed to find a needle in a haystack, he would ‘proceed at once’ to simply ‘examine straw after straw until he found the object … continue reading