The Hidden Cost of Success
Character is fate
Welcome to The Stoa Letter, the newsletter on Stoic theory and practice.
🏛️ Theory
It’s tempting to get angry when terrible people succeed. It feels like an unjust world when you see those who are cruel or selfish rewarded.
The boss who gets ahead at the expense of others. The former friend, who faced no real consequence for betraying you. The politician, who lies their way to success.
But the Stoic doesn’t get angry at these kinds of people, or the world for allowing them to exist. They know these people have already been punished because they have to live with themselves.
As the Stoic Epictetus said:
The man who blames providence because the wicked are not punished, but are strong and rich, is doing much the same as if, when [this person] had lost their eyes, he said that they had not been punished because their nails were sound. I for my part say that there is much more difference between virtue and property than there is between eyes and nails.
Epictetus, Fragment 13
A Stoic doesn’t just admire someone with a good character, they pity the person with a bad one.
Character is more important than external success. The person who pursues money, power, or popularity over their character is not living a good life.
So don’t be angry at a bad person who has found success. Pity them. If virtue is its own reward, then vice is its own punishment.
🎯 Action
Focus on character today.
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