That’s What It’s Made For | Ask Daily Stoic

Summary

The Daily Stoic – “That’s What It’s Made For | Ask Daily Stoic”

Episode Date: January 8, 2026
Host: Ryan Holiday
Guest Interviewer: Ninfa Salinas

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Daily Stoic explores the core Stoic idea that adversity and difficulty are what humans—and Stoicism itself—are made for. Ryan Holiday connects the philosophy’s relevance to contemporary challenges in entrepreneurship, leadership, and personal integrity. The episode features a Q&A segment from a talk Ryan gave in Mexico City with politician and entrepreneur Ninfa Salinas, delving into how Stoic principles apply to business and moral responsibility, even in the face of societal chaos.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Adversity: “That’s What It’s Made For”

• Stoicism’s Purpose
  • Stoicism was forged in difficulty and trial, intended to be applied in challenging situations.
  • Quote: “Adversity and difficulty is what you are for. It’s certainly what Stoicism is for.” — Ryan Holiday [01:32]
• Historical Perspective
  • Ryan references how Stoic teachings endured tyrants, exile, plagues, wars, and other hardships.
  • Quote: “These lessons were tried and tested in the furnace of history. They were subjected to tyrants and exile, plagues and wars, imprisonment and health crises, temptations and trials. And now—now is your chance to apply them, to use them.” — Ryan Holiday [01:38]
• The Metaphor of the Shoulder
  • Inspired by a Nathaniel Rateliff lyric: “Lean and use your weight, that’s what a shoulder is made for.” Ryan connects this to resilience, emphasizing relying on inner resources and the wisdom passed down from generations.

2. Responding to Life’s Challenges as an Entrepreneur

• The Obstacle Is the Way
  • Ninfa Salinas references Ryan’s book, asking about the strategy of tackling the hardest tasks first.
  • Quote: “You talk about, you know, trying to get out of your agenda the hardest thing possible, the first thing in the morning. So can you talk a little bit about this? And, you know, does it apply to entrepreneurial life?” — Ninfa Salinas [05:50]
• Adaptability as a Core Entrepreneurial Skill
  • Entrepreneurs are defined by their ability to respond to the unexpected, whether it’s a new regulation, market shift, or internal crisis.
  • Ryan: “What a great company does, what a great business does, what a great leader does is respond: well, how are we going to deal with this? What are we going to do because of this?” [06:20]
  • Pandemic example: Many businesses discovered new capabilities out of necessity (e.g., e-commerce, remote work).
  • Emphasizes the importance of creating structure and discipline so chaos in the business environment can be met with order.
• Personal Organization
  • Quote: “You want to be organized in your life, in your career, in your workspace, so you can be chaotic in your art. And I think an entrepreneur’s got to create structure and discipline so that they can deal with the craziness that is inherent in wanting your own thing.” — Ryan Holiday [07:22]

3. Integrity: Doing the Right Thing Without Oversight

• Integrity in Chaotic Environments
  • Ninfa Salinas notes the challenges of acting with integrity in violent and difficult settings, asking for Ryan’s perspective.
  • Quote: “You urge us to act with integrity even when nobody is watching. Can you reflect more about how this impacts businesses?” — Ninfa Salinas [07:56]
• Freedom and Responsibility
  • Ryan stresses that with independence (as in entrepreneurship), the powerful ability to make decisions should be wielded responsibly and not selfishly.
  • Quote: “One of the great things about being an entrepreneur is that you get to make really important, impactful decisions…for the people inside our organization.” — Ryan Holiday [08:21]
  • “No one’s putting a gun to our head and saying you have to do them. And in fact, that’s what makes it most meaningful.” [09:14]
• Distinguishing Between Legal and Right
  • It’s easy to rationalize questionable actions just because “everyone does it” or “it’s not illegal.”
  • Ryan references Viktor Frankl: America’s Statue of Liberty should be balanced with a “statue of responsibility.”
  • Quote: “That doesn’t mean you just get to do whatever you want. What it means is that you now have the freedom to make the right decisions. And you have to do that.” — Ryan Holiday [10:11]
• Impact of Individual Integrity
  • Even if the world is corrupt, individuals can control their own actions and culture—making an immediate impact within their sphere.
  • “I’ve just found that so empowering as an entrepreneur myself…if everyone took that responsibility seriously, it would make an enormous impact right away.” [11:18]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Lean and use your weight. That’s what a shoulder is made for. Adversity and difficulty is what you are for.” — Ryan Holiday [01:32]
• “Necessity made it possible… an entrepreneur is by definition someone who responds well to what happens in life.” — Ryan Holiday [06:27]
• “You want to be organized in your life, in your career, in your workspace, so you can be chaotic in your art.” — Ryan Holiday [07:22]
• “It’s so easy in politics and business…to make this distinction between illegal and wrong, you know, ‘it’s not illegal, so technically I can do it.’” — Ryan Holiday [09:40]
• “That doesn’t mean you just get to do whatever you want. What it means is that you now have the freedom to make the right decisions.” — Ryan Holiday [10:11]
• “If everyone took that responsibility seriously, it would make an enormous impact right away.” — Ryan Holiday [11:18]

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Key Segment Timestamps

• 00:00 – 01:50: Stoicism’s purpose—adversity, metaphor of the shoulder, introduction to theme
• 05:50 – 07:50: Entrepreneurship Q&A—tackling obstacles, morning routines, chaos vs. order
• 07:56 – 11:18: Acting with integrity—responsibility in business, legal vs. right, individual empowerment

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Tone & Context

Ryan’s delivery is practical, encouraging, and pragmatic, stressing that Stoicism is “for the hard times.” The tone remains motivating throughout, as he urges listeners and entrepreneurs especially to embrace resilience and integrity, regardless of the turmoil or dysfunction in the world around them.

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For regular listeners, this episode serves as a renewed call to apply ancient wisdom to modern chaos, positioning every individual as capable of meaningful action, even when circumstances are not ideal. For new listeners, it succinctly encapsulates The Daily Stoic’s outlook: that adversity is not just inevitable—it is the arena for virtue and character to shine.

Transcript

[Ryan Holiday]

Foreign. Welcome to the Daily Stoic podcast where each day we bring you a stoic inspired meditation designed to help you find strength and insight and wisdom into everyday life. Each one of these episodes is Based on the 2000 year old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. Help you learn from them, to follow in their example, and to start your day off with a little dose of courage and discipline and justice and wisdom. For more, visit Dailystoic.com. That's what it's made for. You probably wish you didn't have to and of course you didn't want it to happen. It would be nicer if things went as planned. But one thing we know about life is that this is just how it goes. Accidents, disasters, difficult periods, challenging situations. Well, as we've said before, this is what we trained for. This is the whole point of stoicism. There's a great line in a Nathaniel Rateliff song about this. Let me, let me play it for you real fast.

Now. Lean and use your weight. That's what a shoulder's made for.

Lean and use your weight. That's what a shoulder is made for. Adversity and difficulty is what you are for. It's certainly what stoicism is for. These lessons were tried and tested in the furnace of history. They were subjected to tyrants and exile, plagues and wars, imprisonment and health crises, temptations and trials. And now, now is your chance to apply them, to use them. You've got the shoulders you are standing on, shoulders of generations of stoics who came before. Lean and use your weight. Carry the weight. As you know, it's the start of the new year. We all have our resolutions. We want to exercise more. We want to eat healthier. One of mine is I. I love running, but I want to do some other working out. I want to be a little stronger in 2026. Well, that's where today's sponsor comes in. Tonal provides the convenience of a full gym and the guidance of a personal trainer anytime at home. With one sleek system, it's designed to reduce your mental load, which, frankly, is part of the don't work out. It's like running is simple. I'm just gonna do it. I go this place, I turn around and then I come home. Right? I don't have to think about how much weight I'm gonna lift, how many sets I'm gonna do, Am I doing it right? Is my form right? With tonal, there's none of that. There's no focusing on workout planning and there's no second guessing your form either. Tonal gives you real time coaching cues to dial in your form and help you lift safely and effectively. And they set the optimal weight for every move and adjust in 1 pound increments as you get stronger. So you're always challenged. And right now, Tonal is offering our listeners 200 bucks off their Tonal purchase with promo code TDS. Go to Tonal.com and use promo code TDS for 200 bucks off your purchase. That's Tonal.com promo code TDS for $200 off. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. I actually just finished my online therapy session just a few minutes ago. The year's coming to an end. I guess I could have pushed it till January, but I thought, you know what? No. I want the holidays to go well. I want to be focus what I should be focused on. I want to take care of myself. I want to get better. And that's where today's sponsor, BetterHelp, comes in. Therapy is a great way to get a unbiased perspective on your life. It's how you can get a weight off your shoulders. It's so you can focus on the future. It's so you can break old patterns and be who you want to be in 2026. With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is one of the world's largest online therapy platforms. They've served more than 5 million people all over the world. BetterHelp therapists, according to a strict code of conduct. They are fully licensed in the US and they even do the initial matching work for you so you can focus on your therapy goals. If you aren't happy with your therapist, you can switch to a different one at any time from their recommendations. If you want to leave some stuff behind, leave it in the past, leave it in 2025. Well, BetterHelp can help you do that. And you can sign up right now for 10% [e-mail] DailyStoicPod that's betterhelp.com DailyStoicpod. Hey, it's Ryan. Welcome to another Thursday episode of the Daily Stoke podcast. Back in May, I was in Mexico City doing a talk to this thing called Grupo Salinas. It's their national advisory council. I did a couple different Q and A's as part of it. I really worked hard on this talk. I actually built in a whole story about Frida Kahlo in there. So that was really cool. And I thought I'd bring you as part of our Q and A episode some Questions from that. Here I am being interviewed by Ninfa Salinas. She was asking me some questions on stage. And she is a Mexican politician, a former Mexican senator, and she represents the ecologist Green Party of Mexico. She's also the president of the advisory council and leads the Somos Grandes initiative, which was created by Grupo Salinas to promote entrepreneurship across Mexico. Let's get into it.

[Ninfa Salinas]

So I like what you're saying, because with respect to the Obstacle is the Way, which is one of your books, and I've read it, you talk about, you know, trying to get out of your agenda the hardest thing possible, the first thing in warning. So can you talk a little bit about this? And you know, does it apply to entrepreneurial life? I think it does.

[Ryan Holiday]

Well, I do think what an entrepreneur is fundamentally is someone who's having to constantly respond to the things that might. Right. Suddenly a new law comes into effect or a new change in the market comes into effect. A new technology is invented. One of your employees, you find out, is stealing from you, your most trusted employee quits. Stuff is happening. And you've got to respond, what a great company does, what a great business does, what a great leader does is. Is respond, well, how are we going to deal with this? What are we going to do because of this? I mean, I think you saw this during the pandemic. How many businesses didn't have an E commerce component, didn't have a takeout component, didn't have a hybrid or work remote component, and they had to suddenly figure that out. Now, if you'd asked them In February of 2020, was this possible, they would have said no. But necessity made it possible. I mean, how many people become entrepreneurs because they got laid off or because there was a downturn in their industry? And so an entrepreneur is by definition someone who responds well to what happens in life. And I do think, to go to your point about sort of the team and structure you have to create, your life is going to be crazy enough. There was an artist who said, you want to be organized in your life, in your career, in your workspace, so you can be chaotic in your art. And I think an entrepreneur's got to create structure and discipline so that they can deal with the craziness that is inherent in wanting your own thing. If you are adding on top of that, just personal chaos and dysfunction. You never know where anything is. And office is a mess and your phone is always ringing. You're. You're just adding noise on top of noise.

[Ninfa Salinas]

I like what you say. I think it's very powerful. Just to wrap it up, I would, I would like to ask you about your new book.

[Ryan Holiday]

Yeah.

[Ninfa Salinas]

Which is the right thing right now. And here in Mexico we're living in an environment that just pretty violent and there are difficulties all around. And I know it's not exclusive to Mexico, but what you say is you urge us to act with integrity even when nobody is launching. Can you reflect more about how does this impact businesses?

[Ryan Holiday]

One of the great things about being an entrepreneur is that you get to make some decisions. Look, it'd be wonderful if we all lived under competent governments, if everyone played by the rules, if collectively we all did what was best for each other and the planet. But we don't. We do the opposite.

Yeah.

Most of the time. And politics is the art of addressing that. But you and I are not the emperor, we are not the president, unfortunately. So we don't get to make a lot of those decisions. We certainly don't get to decide what they're doing across some far distant ocean or what another country institute. So do we give up? Do we despair? No. One of the great things about being an entrepreneur is that we get to make really important, impactful decisions. They don't necessarily impact everyone, but they certainly matter a great deal to the people inside our organization. So the decision to, I don't know, provide benefits, or the decision to set certain environment or equality standards, the decision to treat everyone we deal with fairly, these are decisions that we get to make. No one's putting a gun to our head and saying you have to do them. And in fact, that's what makes it most meaningful. It's so easy in politics and business. And like it's been true, it's true in America, it's true here. It's been true historically to go well, everyone else is doing well. That's just standard practice. Or to make this distinction between illegal and wrong, you know, it's not, it's not illegal. So technically I can do it there. Viktor Frankl, the great Jewish writer, comes out in the Holocaust. He, he said that it's wonderful that America has a Statue of Liberty, but he felt that on the west coast there should be a corresponding statue of responsibility and love me and, and I think every business person has the chance to go, hey, look, it's wonderful to live in a society and a capitalistic society to have the freedom to make these decisions. But that doesn't mean you just get to do whatever you want. What it means is that you now have the freedom to make the right decisions. And you have to do that. And so, look, there's going to be corruption around you, there's going to be disincentives around you. There's going to be opportunities that you could take advantage of that might be good for you financially, but you understand, or VAP for the world or someone on the other side of that transaction. And then you have to decide, hey, am I going to be that person? And I've just found that so empowering as an entrepreneur myself, is that as frustrated as I am with the state of the world, I've got plenty that I can focus on for my people, for my team, for my community. And that if everyone took that responsibility seriously, it would make it an enormous impact right away. And that's just something I wish more entrepreneurs would embrace.

Hey, it's Ryan. Thank you for listening to the Daily Stoic podcast. I just wanted to say we so appreciate it.

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It's amazing to us that over 30 million people have downloaded these episodes in the couple years we've been doing it. It's an honor. Please spread the word, tell people about it. And this isn't to sell anything. I just wanted to say thank you.

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