Who the f——k is Ryan Holiday? And why am I reading this young millennial and learning something great every day? And yes, this seems like a rude way to praise someone but all I’m doing is expressing how I felt when I heard about this guy’s background and then how it didn’t get much better when I saw him! This isn’t what I expected when I laid eyes on the guy who I thought had grasped the insights of the ancient philosophers like Marcus Aurelius and Seneca so well that he made it easy for someone like me to feel lucky that I was growing from their insights. These insights were explained to me by this guy, who I’ve never heard of, called Ryan Holiday.

Given his grasp of what Marcus, Seneca et al, who were telling us about how we should be leading our lives, I had this idea that Ryan was an enlightened academic. Yep, someone, who had realised that the philosophers’ pearls of wisdom were only ever going to be really appreciated by those who need guidance, if someone had the nerve to dumb it down and make it accessible.

Ryan is that man, but wait a minute, he’s no ex-academic, like me, who has tried to do exactly what he’s been doing but not in the cerebral world of philosophy. Instead I’ve been translating the confusing and complicated world of economics and money.

So if he’s not an academic, what are his credentials for being an interpretive expert on the great brains of the ancient world, whose brainpower has stood the test of time?

Let me give you Ryan’s CV. Here goes: Apart from being a college dropout, his greatest achievement seems to be the former Director of Marketing for the now defunct American Apparel! Wikipedia says his big claim to fame, it seems, before becoming a great writer of very successful books was that “he has been responsible for a number of media stunts.”

But his books are not media stunts. They’re consumed by thoughtful people who really think he has nailed some of the more important questions of life with absolutely insightful answers.

His early books showed where he came from:

1.  Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator — debuted on the Wall Street Journal’s (WSJ) bestseller list
2. Growth Hacker Marketing — this made Inc.com’s top 10 marketing books of 2014.
3. The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph — WSJ #1 bestseller list.
4. Ego Is the Enemy — made four bestseller lists in the USA.
5. The Daily Stoic — debuted on the USA Today bestseller’s list as well as the WSJ bestseller’s list, where it remained for 11 weeks and ranked as high as #2.

Don’t get me wrong, I really rate this young guy and love what he’s been telling me about the ancient philosophers of the world and I know people who have genuinely benefited from his work.

But how did a marketing manipulator cross the Rubicon and go from spinning marketing shyte to helping people with the hurdy gurdy spinning world of modern man?

Well, he does write The Daily Stoic, with a co-author called Steve Hanselman, so is he the philosopher aficionado who helped a great communicator make philosophy accessible?

This is Steve’s CV: Stephen Hanselman has worked for over three decades in publishing as a bookseller, publisher and literary agent. He is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, where he received a Master's degree while also studying extensively at Harvard's philosophy department.

OK, Steve looks like a hobbyist philosopher but it’s the voice of Ryan that seems to dominate when I read this stuff but maybe I’m hearing two voices and I simply don’t know it! That said, this is what Amazon tells me about the guy: “RYAN HOLIDAY is one of the world's foremost thinkers and writers on ancient philosophy and its place in everyday life.”

And here’s what a lot of successful people say about this guy:

• “Ryan Holiday is one of his generation’s finest thinkers…” — Steven Pressfield, author of the New York Times bestseller “The War of Art”.
• “Holiday is part Machiavelli, part Ogilvy, and all results…this whiz kid is the secret weapon you’ve never heard of.” — Tim Ferriss, author of “The 4-Hour Workweek and Tools of Titan”.
• “Ryan Holiday is one of the most promising young writers of his generation.” — George Raveling, Hall of Fame Basketball Coach, Nike’s Director of International Basketball
• “I don’t have many rules in life, but one I never break is: If Ryan Holiday writes a book, I read it as soon as I can get my hands on it.” — Brian Koppelman, screenwriter and director, Rounders, Ocean’s Thirteen and Billions
• “[The Obstacle Is the Way is] a book for the bedside of every future—and current—leader in the world.” — Robert Greene, author of “The 48 Laws of Power and Mastery”.
• “It’s rare that I finish a book then immediately reread it, this time with a yellow marker in hand…I can’t recommend [Ego is the Enemy] highly enough.” — Kevin Rose, entrepreneur and technology investor.
• “[The Daily Stoic is] a generous gift of guidance on modern living culled from a canon of wisdom hatched long ago.” —Maria Popova, editor of Brain Pickings.

I really don’t know how he does it but Ryan Holiday does it fantastically well and even with his less than auspicious academic history, his insights are unbelievably helpful and lifechanging.

Go Ryan! You’ve discovered the Philosophers’ Stone that has turned the often indecipherable and therefore valueless work of philosophy to the common man, who really needs it, into GOLD! You are a “f­reakin’ beauty!”

A then-and-now approach to philosophy. Here’s an extract from The Daily Stoic.

Seneca: “Good people will do what they find honorable to do, even if it requires hard work; they’ll do it even if it causes them injury; they’ll do it even if it will bring danger. Again, they won’t do what they find base, even if it brings wealth, pleasure or power. Nothing will deter them from what is honorable, and nothing will lure them into what is base.”

Ryan Holiday: “If doing good was easy, everyone would do it. (And if doing bad wasn’t tempting or attractive, nobody would do it.) The same goes for your duty. If anyone could do it, it would have been assigned to someone else. But instead it was assigned to you. Thankfully, you’re not like everyone. You’re not afraid of doing what is hard. You can resist superficially attractive rewards. Can’t you?”