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Top Takeaways

1.. Temperance is not deprivation but command of oneself physically, mentally, spiritually — demanding the best of oneself, even when no one is looking, even when allowed less. It takes courage to live this way — not just because it’s hard, but because it sets you apart. 

2.. It’s harder to do less than to do too much. A worthy goal is to reduce complexity & improve simplicity.

3.. Discipline, then, is both predictive and deterministic. It makes it more likely you’ll be successful and it ensures, success or failure, that whatever happens, you are great. The converse is also true: a lack of discipline puts you in danger; it also colors who and what you are.

4.. A classic trait of high performers: they do what they should do even when they don’t feel like. They also abstain from doing what might feel good but is not effective.

5.. When we desire more than we need, we make ourselves vulnerable. When we overextend ourselves, when we chase, we are not self-sufficient.

6.. There is incredible utility in building something you’re proud of, and living a quiet life making an impact. Not everything is about “more, more, more.” Sometimes the greatest achievement in life is knowing when you’ve “made it,” and enjoy the ride from there.

7.. A Spartan king was once asked what the Spartans got from their “spartan” habits. “Freedom is what we reap from this way of life,” he told them. Being a little hard on ourselves, it makes it harder for others to be hard on us. By being strict with ourselves, we take away others’ power over us.

8.. A person who lives below their means has far more latitude than a person who can’t. That’s why Michelangelo, the artist, didn’t live as austerely as Cato but he avoided the gifts dangled by his wealthy patrons. He didn’t want to owe anyone. Real wealth, he understood, was autonomy.

9.. Happiness is the difference between your expectations & your circumstances. A quick way to improve happiness is to stop moving your goalpost.

10.. As the novelist Gustave Flaubert commands: Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.

11.. Most of one’s business problems are really “LIFE” problems that are bleeding into business. The reverse is also true. Best to maintain a level of routine in life if you’re building something robust at work.

12.. You may lose battles, Napoleon said, but never lose a minute to sloth.

13.. Some ask, What is the reward for all this labor? They are incorrect if they think it’s awards and fame and weeks on the bestseller list. Others want a guarantee: If I put in my ten thousand hours, then I’ll get the job? Then I’ll be able to go pro? Then I’ll be rich? No, that’s not how this goes. Always and forever, the reward is the work. It is a joy itself. It is torture and also heaven—sweaty, wonderful salvation.

14.. The “Process” should outrank the “Prize.” When you study great leaders, thinkers, and builders — they are all to the final one obsessed with their work. Not their money, not their followers… those things follow the work.

15.. Success breeds softness. It also breeds fear: We become addicted to our creature comforts. And then we become afraid of losing them. Seneca was no Cato day to day, but he knew from his practice, that he could be if he had to.