Seneca was a very rich man. Marcus Aurelius was too. Cicero's family made a fortune in business and he made a fortune in law. We know this from the historical record, of course, but to the vast majority of people who even know the names of these men, their financial success is but a footnote.
Instead, we admire Seneca for the incredible philosophy he wrote. We admire Marcus Aurelius for how he lived and who he was as a person. Cicero's inspiring speeches against tyranny and his defense of the Republic—this is his legacy. And what mattered far more to the people who knew them and loved them in life was something entirely different and far more personal.
We know that's how it works, we know that ultimately lives are not measured by superficial or materialistic things…yet we spend so much of our lives focused solely on that! "Look if all you want is to have a pile of money at the end, well, I guess that's your choice," Bill Perkins writes in his fascinating book Die With Zero (grab it here from the Painted Porch and listen to his podcast with Daily Stoic here). "But bear in mind that I have never seen somebody's total net worth posted on their tombstone."
When we launched our course on what the Stoics thought and taught about money (it's called The Wealthy Stoic), some people assumed we were selling Stoicism as a success strategy. We were, just not like they were thinking. Because Stoicism is a philosophy designed to help you become wealthy and successful…just not like that. It's a different kind of success, a different definition of wealth.
Yes, it's a matter of fact many of the Stoics were literally wealthy. But, much more importantly, they were figuratively wealthy. They understood the value of things—what should be prized and what shouldn't be prized—and how little they actually needed. They lived wealthy lives because they knew what enough was and were empowered because they could provide for themselves and their families. But most of all, they were wealthy because their lives were full of purpose and meaning. "Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants," Epictetus says.
That's what it means to be a Wealthy Stoic and what we get into in the Wealthy Stoic course: how to be truly rich, how to get out from under the thumb of money, how to be happy with enough, how to thrive, succeed, and live a good, happy life.
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