Stoic leadership, work-life balance, and making your own luck

Executive overview

Fortune is not something that happens to you — it is something you build through character, intention, and action. Marcus Aurelius reigned through plague, war, and coups, yet defined good fortune as good conduct, not good circumstances.

Two audience Q&As from a live talk in Rotterdam explore what virtuous leadership looks like today and how stoic philosophy handles real-world moral compromise.

True good fortune is what you make for yourself — always within your control.

The luck you make for yourself

• Marcus wrote "I was once a fortunate man, but fortune abandoned me" — then argued with himself against that view
• He redefined good fortune as good character, good intentions, and good actions
• Life can curse you; that doesn't stop you from doing good things
• What you can control is always available to you

Virtue and leadership today

• Political office is increasingly treated as a path to fame, power, and money rather than public service
• Leadership is a skill and trade, like plumbing or managing money — it requires the right people, not just the most ambitious
• The Eisenhower paradox: Eisenhower didn't want the presidency; many of the best presidents didn't aspire to it early; many of the worst did
• Marcus Aurelius reportedly wept when told he would become emperor — he understood how many bad rulers history had produced
• Leaders who feel the weight and danger of power are closer to what good governance requires

Stoicism as philosophy versus real-world practice

• Stoic writings can appear black and white, but the lives of the stoics show constant wrestling with vexing trade-offs
• Cicero said Cato's flaw was thinking he lived in Plato's Republic rather than the dregs of Rome; Marcus reminded himself of the same thing
• Seneca advised Nero — the moral question of whether to stay and constrain or quit in protest has no clean answer
• Philosophy experiments become cost-benefit analyses when real people bear the consequences

Work, life, and stoicism as a practice

• Work-life "balance" is the wrong frame — tension is more accurate; everything involves trade-offs
• Writing and speaking about stoicism functions as ongoing practice, not just output
• Spending your limited time on what you both need and genuinely value is itself a stoic choice
• Stoicism leans toward black-and-white moral judgement; elected stoics still had to compromise and navigate imperfect options