A leader must be a reader: treat yourself as the project

Executive overview

Great leaders consistently face situations they have never encountered before. Reading is the only way to borrow experience from others before you need it. The Stoics go further: your mind is your primary professional asset, and investing in it is not self-indulgence — it is the job.

Treat yourself as a business and allocate time and money to your own development accordingly.

Leaders who read

• Kennedy drew on B.H. Liddell Hart's strategic thinking during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
• Churchill's decades as a historian gave him the moral clarity to fight on in WWII.
• Marcus Aurelius became who he was only after reading Epictetus at Rusticus's urging.
• Seneca faced death with equanimity because he had read Cato, just as Cato read Socrates.
• Nixon articulated the value of reading but watched 500+ movies in office — and fell short.

You are the project

• Epictetus: the raw material for a good person is their own guiding reason — that is what must be worked on.
• Professionals don't apologise for time spent training; reading is training for the mind.
• If skipping a run degrades your writing, the run is part of the job — apply the same logic to reading.
• Treat personal development like a business investment: put up time, money, and a plan.
• The low-hanging fruit of life eventually runs out; the professional level requires serious investment in yourself.