We are stuck, stymied, frustrated. But it needn't be this way. There is a formula for success that's been followed by the icons of history - from John D. Rockefeller to Amelia Earhart to Ulysses S. Grant to Steve Jobs - a formula that let them turn obstacles into opportunities. Faced with impossible situations, they found the astounding triumphs we all seek.

These men and women were not exceptionally brilliant, lucky, or gifted. Their success came from timeless philosophical principles laid down by a Roman emperor who struggled to articulate a method for excellence in any and all situations.

This book reveals that formula for the first time - and shows us how we can turn our own adversity into advantage.

Listening Length

6 hours and 7 minutes
Author

Ryan Holiday
Narrator

Ryan Holiday
Audible release date

6 May 2014
Language

English
Publisher

Tim Ferriss
ASIN

B00NPBKP06
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	6 hours and 7 minutes
Author	Ryan Holiday
Narrator	Ryan Holiday
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com.au Release Date	06 May 2014
Publisher	Tim Ferriss
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B00NPBKP06
Best Sellers Rank	149 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 1 in Philosophy Movements (Audible Books & Originals) 1 in Philosophy Movements (Books) 6 in Business Motivation & Self-Improvement (Books)

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5 star		74%
4 star		17%
3 star		5%
2 star		2%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from Australia

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Sinn

Good read but overwhelmed with examples

Reviewed in Australia on 15 July 2022

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This book is a good read but I failed to keep up the comparison of stoics stories and their morals to present life situations, yes Ryan holiday provides the application of these stoic values in few of them but the examples were really overwhelming, didn’t so enjoy in the end and was waiting for it to end ! I bought the obstacle is the way and ego is the enemy and stillness is the key together because I read good reviews about the author and stoics reading but I am discouraged to pick up the other 2 books after reading this one . Overall a good book but not so much of value .

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Arkham

Time for a good hard look at yourself.

Reviewed in Australia on 4 September 2016

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Typically, I'm not down for a "self-help book". Usually, they either don't have enough witchery and dragons or they have totally the wrong kind.

That said, "The Obstacle is the Way" held the vast majority of my attention from Go to Whoah.

Holiday has compiled the philosophy of the stoics with the stories of real people to send a very clear and somewhat repetitive message: "Chin up champ... that spectacularly s***ty situation is actually an opportunity for you to own it like a Boss. If you choose to!"

Don't get me wrong, saying "somewhat repetitive message" isn't a negative. Barring some form of once in a life-time, life-changing event, your mindset isn't going to change overnight. Repetition is necessary. Repetition is necessary. Repetition is necessary.

Have already recommended it to others. Time for a good hard look at yourself.

7 people found this helpful

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Steve Howe

The first book I have completed in 2022

Reviewed in Australia on 17 January 2022

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The author shares the key messages of stoicism - focus on changing the things you can, accept the things you cannot.

This feels like the first step in a journey to reconnect with some fairly basic truths which whilst they make perfect sense, have to balance against our cognitive dissonance which is trying to keep us within our current , comfortable psychological boundaries.

I can see that is would be very easy to go deeply down the rabbit hole from here and read an entire library of texts from the original ancient philosophers.

One person found this helpful

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Robert D. Crane

Tough love

Reviewed in Australia on 24 May 2014

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It is very tough standing at the bottom of the mountain looking up knowing that your path crosses it. That in many ways is what this book is about and that is why it is not perhaps for everyone.

There is little doubt that life if full of obstacles and that overcoming these makes you a better person but the journey to overcome them is challenging and none more so unless you have the determination to tackle with these with resolve.

This book is certainly inspiring and challenging in the path that it points you along, however don't be fooled that it is an easy path. Yet, take solace in the fact that it is a path that a great many embark on but few complete. The book is easy to read and quite enjoyable and does challenge you to do better by demonstrating how others have got on with what needs doing and when they reflect back the challenges don't seem quite so great.

This book is for those who are committed on a path of self improvement and appreciate the fact that they live in an imperfect world, much of which is beyond their control. It should inspire you and show you that this path is the one worth taking although it may not appear that way at the outset.

Leading a good life is more about a philosophy than any secret formula. This book demonstrates that it is possible and that the challenge is to embrace the obstacles and see them as integral to being alive. That however is no easy process but possible as many others throughout history can attest to.

8 people found this helpful

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A valuable read

Reviewed in Australia on 24 June 2018

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I wanted this book to be something other than it was, I wanted it to be a workbook about managing the obstacle. It isn’t.

That does not take away from the value of the book that it is.

This is a book about people who came to know that to be successful we should deal with what is infront of us and not turn back or try to side step what we find.

It’s a valuable read

3 people found this helpful

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Yet another good book about three things that really matter

Reviewed in Australia on 11 November 2017

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My ongoing life study into the rule of three has been enhanced through reading this book.

I like the sequence of short insights all reinforcing the three tenets of stoicism: "see things for what they are; do what we can; and endure i.e bear what we must

5 people found this helpful

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Case

Meh, lacks any substance

Reviewed in Australia on 19 May 2021

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I don't know if it is because I already tend to try and see the positive in difficult situations but I really didn't get much if anything from this book other than a reading list at the end of good books to learn about ancient stoics. The formula seemed to be: anecdote of someone in history that overcame difficulties, then advice along of lines of, just do that, be like them. But zero practical advice of how other than the previously mentioned reading list at the end of the book.

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Amazon Customer

I strongly recommend this book

Reviewed in Australia on 28 October 2016

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I strongly recommend this book. If not life changing, it's extremely useful. As are the cited quotes. Unlike another book I would also recommend on turning obstacles to advantages: Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, and other books that have been personally helpful to me; Holiday's writing is so concise, practical and accessible I could recommend it to just about anyone

3 people found this helpful

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Neil Lucock

Best avoided, buy something better

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 February 2018

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This had lots of good reviews and was recommended by a Stoic site, but I don't think it is worth having. I've read about half up to now and I'm losing interest, I doubt I'll finish reading it. Lots of heartwarming examples of people who were not actually Stoics but exhibited some form of Stoic behaviour don't really convince me that the author had anything useful to say. The book feels like he padded it out to make the word count, there's little in the way of original insights or things you didn't realise. The fact that he uses a lot of stories from American sports is something I personally find tedious, I have no idea who the people are or what he's writing about. I really dislike chapters that are three pages long. I also found his use of English was poor, it's not fluid, you constantly notice how he's expressed himself, rather than what he's said. Good English should be unobtrusive and flow from the page to the reader's mind without you noticing it.

He does explain the basics, so it's not a bad book to read if you have never encountered Stoic ideas before, but he doesn't seem to cover the subject in any depth. I'm waiting for him to introduce concepts like Eudaimonia and Apatheia, but this book reads too much like a self-help book for my taste. He's constantly offering military insights, not all of them accurate (The German attack on Poland in 1939 was a series of Kesselslachen, not Blitzkrieg). Lots of them are about American generals, quite a rich field where you can find many good examples, but after a quick introduction of Sherman (for example), he briefly discusses his personal qualities and he then moves on. Sherman wasn't a stoic (He was a Catholic as an adult), it's as if the author is trying to find things that can be used to support his views. Sherman was mired in controversy several times in his life and had a nervous breakdown in 1861. He was an effective general but not a good choice to support the book's narrative. This book is more like a magazine article or an essay written by someone who knows nothing about the subject but has researched it well on-line.
There are a lot of better books to read on the subject that offer more depth and better insights. I'd not recommend this book to anyone who showed any interest in the subject.

236 people found this helpful

Liam Kelleher

Nauseating, limited research and poorly written - made me angry, not stoic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 June 2020

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Have you ever seen those ads on the internet? “Change your life today for only all of your money”. And you are taken to some badly written course outline that reeks of a pyramid scheme. The self help world is riddled with cons and Ryan Holiday is the latest addition.

The man is a tv marketer by background - he knows how to fool the masses. And he has somehow managed to get his online badly written life changing course printed.

He basically takes a few basic stoic concepts - don’t worry about what you can’t control, work hard, remain positive etc - and spin a book out of it. Throw in the names of Marcus Aurelius and Seneca along with some modern anecdotes and you are deemed a genius, according to a few people on the back (who clearly haven’t read the book or are part of the self help pyramid scheme)

The anecdotes themselves are horribly cliché. Just name drops people that everyone will know such as Edison, Lincol, Eisenhower, the Lakers (marketing 101 - don’t lose your audience). The bits and bobs of history are so basic and sometimes just wrong - I’m not sure he even bothered to google some of it.

The attempts at motivation amount to little other than “are you ready to go to work? Let’s get to work!”

The writing is blatantly dreadful and nauseating “Lincoln possessed an inner mental fortress that girdered him” Jesus.

It might seem like a good book if you are under 20 and haven't read any self help books before but if you’ve ever read any few before this, you will be quite disappointed with this.

31 people found this helpful

Pragmatic Engineer

4* for the novice, 3* for experienced readers

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 November 2017

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I had high expectations for this book which it didn't quite live up to. Ryan Holiday opens this book and bases his narrative around a quote by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, which indicates there are 3 critical steps to overcoming an obstacle: (i) perspective, (ii) action and (iii) will/perseverance.

The book is then subsequently sectioned into 3 parts on (i) perspective, (ii) action and (iii) will/perseverance. Each part is divided into roughly 8-10 sub sections. Each sub section is several pages long and offers one key insight. e.g. perspective can be objective/subjective or perspectives create opportunities etc etc.

The book uses anecdotes of successful historical figures to validate ideas which includes the use of Politicians (Lincoln, Roosevelt), Athletes (Hurricane Carter), George Clooney to name a few. There is also many references to Stoic philosophers (Epictetus, Demosthenes, Marcus etc).

Overall I agreed mostly with the proposition of the book. I didn't however believe that the anecdotes supply sufficient reasoning to argue these points. It felt that the author cherry-picked case-studies to fit his narrative.

I also tended to find the writing style was slightly awkward and a lot of sentences were of this nature: "leadership requires determination, energy and courage" which by itself often seemed irrelevant. The author also feels the need to use 2 descriptive words at all instances, e.g. "It's easier to persist in our efforts and actions than to endure the uncomfortable or the painful"

Furthermore, if the reader has read about Stoicism before (e.g. The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by Irvine) then much of the Stoic ideas are recycled. For an introduction to Stoicism with logical arguments I would recommend Irvine (5* read).

To conclude I feel the overall idea is good. This book will be useful for anyone who has to deal with adverse circumstances. It will appeal to people who prefer anecdotes over reasoning.

68 people found this helpful

An A4 page article would have sufficed

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 September 2018

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I have both the audio book and the paper copy of this book. I first got the audio book and thought somehow the content sounded just plain repetitive - different words same message; so thought I'd read the book instead so that I can follow it with more attention. But it transpired that page after page after page may have been filled by the author with words but it is repetition, repetition, and yet more repetition of the message behind the content. If that was deliberate then well done to the author, he nailed it. For those readers and seekers of wisdom (or better understanding of stoicism) find and stick to a good translation of Meditations book of Marcus Aurelius instead; that's where you'll find the originality.

41 people found this helpful

Overly simplistic and one dimensional

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 June 2020

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I'm no expert on Stoic philosophy but my understanding of it was that can help us be more calm and resilient. Holiday repackages it into some kind of motivation way to make money in order to be successful. The likes of Marcus Aurelious and Seneca would turn in their graves if their philosophy was compared to unscrupulous business owners like John D Rockefellar. He thinks that just by inserting Stoicism on the front cover and a load of philosophical quotes, he can verify his message. He often power phrases these quotes so that he can subtly twist their meaning to suit his own narrative. His main message seems to be that other people are our enemies and they must be vanquished at all costs. I can imagine someone like Patrick Bateman (American Psycho) or Hitler, before invading Poland, lapping this up. Okay Hitler was a bit extreme. He also often contradicts himself, for example we should never give up, but a few pages later, we should never be wedded to a position or some things in life are bigger than us. We should not worry if our actions limit or hurt others and then we should consider their feelings. We need to take urgent action and then we shouldn't be in a hurry. He also randomly mentions we can control what we desire....
He also says we should ignore our feelings and perceptions. While I agree that we should be skeptical of our feelings as they can be unhelpful, we should from time to time at least try to understand where they come from. His approach seems to be to bury our heads in the sand, this seems like the road to toxic masculinity. He likes a bit of good old fashioned male bravado, life is a race and you have to win.
He doesn't take into account simple bad luck and other variables and simply repeats page after page that we need to tackle our problems. We do, but there are other things at play.
For example if our boss asks something unfeasible at work we shouldn't question it, just put our head down and work harder. Working harder seems to be his main tip for a better life, making him sound like Boxer from Animal Farm. Don't question authority or the status quo, just shut up and get on with it. I can imagine what he thinks of protests like BLM.
There are some useful tips however, such as approach obstacles as an opportunity to practice a virtue, such as patience, forgiveness or courage and that we are in control of how we react to our problems. Also we are all guilty of procrastination at times and could benefit from more action. I agree that life is hard and often things contradict themselves. (I'm doing it in this review)
I agree that a degree of anxiety is required in every life but Holiday's approach will have people slitting their wrists and having sky high blood pressure all over the place. He's reinforcing a dog eat dog world where there has to winners and losers. If you're not the next Steve Jobs, cunningly defeating your enemies and taking all the credit, you're a failure and should be ashamed for not working harder. Something Seneca will help us come to terms with a million times better than Holiday.

15 people found this helpful

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