The Obstacle Becomes The Way - April 1, 2009
The Stoics had an exercise called Turning the Obstacle Upside Down. What they meant to do was make it impossible to ever not practice the art of philosophy. Because if you can properly turn a problem upside down, bad is constantly a new source of good.
Suppose for a second that you are trying to help someone and they respond by being surly or unwilling to cooperate. Instead of making your life more difficult, the exercise says, they're actually directing you towards new virtues; for example, patience or understanding. Or, if something important is stolen or lost; a chance to be less dependent on material things. Marcus Aurelius described it like this: "The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way."
Does this sound familiar? It should because it is the same thinking behind Obama's "teachable moments." Right before the election, Joe Klein asked Obama how he'd made his decision to respond to the Reverend Wright scandal. He said something like 'when the story broke I realized the best thing to do wasn't damage control, it was to speak to Americans like adults.' And he what he ended up doing was turning a negative situation into the perfect platform for his landmark speech about race.
Remember that the common refrain about entrepreneurs is that they take advantage of opportunities. Well, this is something much different. The Reverend Wright scandal, the Special Olympics gaffe, a frustrating case where your help goes unappreciated, none of those are "opportunities" in the normal sense of the word. In fact, they are the opposite. They are obstacles. What a hustler does, or what a Stoic does is turn the obstacle into an opportunity.
Posted by ryanholiday at 12:56 PM
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Comments
I think Pringles' initial intention was to make tennis balls. But on the day that the rubber was supposed to show up, a big truckload of potatoes arrived. But Pringles was a laid-back company. They said "Fuck it. Cut 'em up."
Posted by: francisco at April 2, 2009 09:20 AM
francisco,
Pretty sure that's just a Mitch Hedberg joke.
Posted by: Jesse Farmer at April 2, 2009 11:09 AM
Believe me, he knows that. I gave him a Mitch Hedberg cd in 2001.
His quotation is inspired.
Posted by: Ryan Holiday at April 2, 2009 11:36 AM
So I was driving home the other day to my new apartment and I made a wrong turn, at first I was annoyed, then I realized that this was just an opportunity for me to learn a new route home.
Posted by: Nick Warren at April 6, 2009 07:48 PM
I've noticed recently that a few things that I was "forced" into turned out to be just what I needed - I'm trying to train myself to accept certain things that I think I don't want. They may look like something to avoid at first but after the fact they turn out to be opportunities rather than a waste of time.
Posted by: Richard at April 10, 2009 02:03 AM
Last month American Airlines lost my suitcase and £500 worth of stuff on a domestic flight, while I was visiting USA...
There's no chance I'm getting that stuff back, and it looks like I'm not likely to get any compensation from them either!
All my friends said, wow, how unlucky for you, that's awful!
For me, it was one of the most liberating experiences imaginable!
Posted by: Jc at April 13, 2009 08:39 AM
