1: The Roman Emperor Hadrian once got so angry he stabbed a secretary in the eye with his writing stylus.
Were there consequences?
Of course not. He was the Emperor.
Not Marcus Aurelius. Coming to the throne just decades after Hadrian, Marcus took a different path. The Stoic philosophy path.
He “could have taken advantage of this freedom to behave as he liked,” Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman write in their book Lives of the Stoics. “Instead he kept his temper in check, refused to lash out at the people around him, even if they would have let him get away with it.”
Somehow, against all the odds, “being chosen to be king—having enormous power thrust upon him at so early an age—somehow seems to have made Marcus Aurelius a better person,” the authors observe.
“Alone of the emperors,” the historian Herodian would write of Marcus Aurelius, “he gave proof of his learning not by mere words or knowledge of philosophical doctrines but by his blameless character and temperate way of life.”
Marcus knew he was only a placeholder. He intentionally did not allow his power to his head. “He built few monuments to himself. He didn’t mind criticism. He never abused his power,” Ryan and Stephen write.
2: He also understood that life and success were all about working with and through other people.
“Whenever you have trouble getting up in the morning, remind yourself that you’ve been made by nature for the purpose of working with others,” he wrote in Meditations.
He understood that not everyone would be trustworthy or even pleasant. During the upcoming day, he knew he would encounter people who would be “surly and rude and selfish and stupid,” Ryan and Stephen note.
“Don’t go expecting Plato’s Republic,” Marcus reminded himself.
Did he use this reality as a reason to justify bad behavior? Or perhaps to justify despair?
“‘No,” Marcus writes, “no one can implicate me in ugliness.”
In another passage from the book, he notes: “Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.”
Marcus Aurelius practiced servant leadership centuries before the phrase became popular.
“One of the most common themes in Marcus’s writings was his commitment to serving others,” Ryan and Stephen observe.
“The phrase ‘common good’ appears more than eighty times in Meditations,” they note, “which for a Stoic makes sense but is surprising considering how nearly all of his predecessors viewed the purpose of the state.”
Marcus’s approach to leadership focused on identifying and amplifying what others did well.
“Instead of holding them to his standards or expecting the impossible—as many talented, brilliant leaders naturally do,” the authors write, “he focused on their strengths and was tolerant of their weaknesses.”
“So long as a person did anything good,” the ancient Roman historian Dio Cassius writes, Marcus “would praise him and use him for the service in which he excelled, but to his other conduct he paid no attention; for he declared that it is impossible for one to create such men as one desires to have, and so it is fitting to employ those who are already in existence for whatever service each of them may be able to render to the State.”
Similar to Abraham Lincoln, Marcus did not fear being disagreed with. He “made use of common ground and common cause as best he could,” Ryan and Stephen suggest.
3: Marcus was a realist. He was pragmatic: “The cucumber is bitter?” he asked rhetorically. “Then throw it out. There are brambles in the path? Then go around. That’s all you need to know.”
Ryan and Stephen believe the quotation that best captures Marcus’s leadership style and philosophy of life is:
“You must build up your life action by action, and be content if each one achieves its goal as far as possible—and no one can keep you from this.
“But there will be some external obstacle! Perhaps, but no obstacle to acting with justice, self-control, and wisdom.
“But what if some other area of my action is thwarted? Well, gladly accept the obstacle for what it is and shift your attention to what is given, and another action will immediately take its place, one that better fits the life you are building.”
More tomorrow!
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Reflection: What surprises me about Marcus Aurelius’s philosophies about life and leadership? What can I learn? What will I commit to doing?
Action: Do it.
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