Fortune favours the bold. All great leaders of history have known this, and were successful because of the risks they dared to take. But today, so many of us are paralysed by fear. Drawing on ancient Stoic wisdom and examples across history and around the world, Ryan Holiday shows why courage is so important, and how to cultivate it in our own lives. Courage is not simply physical bravery but also doing the right thing and standing up for what you believe; it's creativity, generosity and perseverance. And it is the only way to live an extraordinary, fulfilled and effective life. 

"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)

Drawing its inspiration from stoicism, the ancient Greek philosophy of enduring pain or adversity with perseverance and resilience, 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. 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.

Throughout history, there's been one indelible quality that great leaders, makers, artists and fighters have shared. The Zen Buddhists described it as inner peace, the Stoics called it ataraxia and Ryan Holiday calls it stillness: the ability to be steady, focussed and calm in a constantly busy world. This quality, valued by every major school of thought from Buddha to Seneca, John Stuart Mill to Nietzsche, is urgently necessary today. And, Holiday shows, it is entirely attainable.

Why have history's greatest minds - from George Washington to Frederick the Great to Ralph Waldo Emerson along with today's top performers, from Super Bowl-winning football coaches to CEOs and celebrities - embraced the wisdom of the ancient Stoics? Because they realize that the most valuable wisdom is timeless and that philosophy is for living a better life, not a classroom exercise. The Daily Stoic offers a daily devotional of Stoic insights and exercises, featuring all-new translations.

Can’t Hurt Me, David Goggins’ smash hit memoir, demonstrated how much untapped ability we all have but was merely an introduction to the power of the mind. In Never Finished, Goggins takes you inside his Mental Lab, where he developed the philosophy, psychology, and strategies that enabled him to learn that what he thought was his limit was only his beginning and that the quest for greatness is unending.

The world's greatest bodybuilder. The world's highest paid movie star. The leader of the world's sixth largest economy. That these are the same person sounds like the setup to a joke. But this is no joke. This is Arnold Schwarzenegger. And this did not happen by accident. Arnold's stratospheric success happened as part of a process. As the result of clear vision, big thinking, hard work, direct communication, resilient problem-solving, open-minded curiosity, and a commitment to giving back. All of it guided by the one lesson Arnold's father hammered into him above all: be useful.

For millennia, Stoicism has been the ancient philosophy that attracts those who seek greatness, from athletes to politicians and everyone in between. And no wonder: its embrace of self-mastery, virtue and indifference to that which we cannot control has much to offer those grappling with today's chaotic world. But who were the Stoics? In this book, Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman offer a fresh approach to understanding Stoicism through the lives of the people who practised it.

In Extreme Ownership, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin share hard-hitting, Navy SEAL combat stories that translate into lessons for business and life. Jocko and Leif served together in SEAL Task Unit Bruiser, the most highly decorated Special Operations unit from the war in Iraq. Through those difficult months of sustained combat, Jocko, Leif and their SEAL brothers learned that leadership - at every level - is the most important thing on the battlefield. Now they teach these same leadership principles to companies throughout the business world.

Toughness has long been held as a fundamental key to achieving peak performance. For generations, we've been taught toughness means bulldozing through—pushing to the point of breakdown—and that showing any sign of weakness is failure. This model of toughness has long been glorified and celebrated. But the truth is, it doesn't work. Steve Magness, a performance scientist who coaches Olympic athletes, now offers a new kind of toughness—real toughness—that can help anyone navigate adversity. Real toughness works with our biology and psychology; fake toughness fights against them.

Money - investing, personal finance, and business decisions - is typically taught as a math-based field, where data and formulas tell us exactly what to do. But in the real world people don’t make financial decisions on a spreadsheet. They make them at the dinner table, or in a meeting room, where personal history, your own unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled together. In The Psychology of Money, award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money.

Few ancient works have been as influential as the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. Filled with wisdom, practical guidance and profound understanding of human behaviour, it remains one of the greatest works of spiritual and ethical reflection ever written. Marcus' insights and advice - on everything from living in the world to coping with adversity and interacting with others - have made the Meditations required listening for statesmen and philosophers alike, while generations of ordinary listeners have responded to the straightforward intimacy of his style.

Coexisting but conflicting needs create self-sabotaging behaviors. This is why we resist efforts to change, often until they feel completely futile. But by extracting crucial insight from our most damaging habits, building emotional intelligence by better understanding our brains and bodies, releasing past experiences at a cellular level, and learning to act as our highest potential future selves, we can step out of our own way and into our potential. 

Living in a small town where dreams were dismissed and bouncing between the homes of divorced parents, Cameron Hanes carried low expectations and no hope for a life of fulfilled potential. Then he discovered his great love—the bow. For Cameron, finding his drive, his purpose, a reason for pushing himself every single day, changed everything. Endure chronicles the lessons Cameron has learned and compels us to raise our expectations of ourselves. 

Popular blogger Cal Newport reveals the new key to achieving success and true meaning in professional life: the ability to master distraction. Many modern knowledge workers now spend most of their brain power battling distraction and interruption, whether because of the incessant pinging of devices, noisy open-plan offices or the difficulty of deciding what deserves their attention the most. When Cal Newport coined the term deep work on his popular blog, Study Hacks, in 2012, he found the concept quickly hit a nerve.