Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favours the Brave Hardcover – 28 Sept. 2021

Love this latest book by Ryan Holiday.I was lucky at eighteen to join a job that tested my mettle, but as life in general gets softer few youngsters learn to face down their fears. He’s done a good job here mixing old wisdom and modern advice.EDIT: Yeah, enjoyed it and still dipping in, but I can’t help feeling he’s missed a trick. An appendix giving real life examples of progressively overcoming fears would’ve been a great extra to this book. (See ‘Fear, the friend of exceptional people’ by Geoff Thompson)The book is good as it stands though, so remains five stars from me.

Absolutel love it

Liked the theme of this book and look forward to the next one. If I had anything bad to say it would be that there are too many little stories to illustrate a simple point. Found myself switching off from time to time

Ryan Holiday helps bring stoicism to life and helps me become a better and more courageous person. A brilliant read!

Read this book in an afternoon. Excellent quotes and life lessons. I learned a great deal. We need stocks leading - philosophy is the way forward.

If you've read Robert Greene's books, Holiday's 'Courage is Calling' follows a similar style - concepts and philosophies of the human experience are laid out, using historical figures as examples and we're told how we can apply this knowledge to our modern lives.I do like books like this. I find them fascinating. Your generic philosophy / well-being books can be quite vague and cliché. History books have their use. But the increasing wealth of literature attempting to splice the two, tickles my pickle.And so Holiday should be congratulated on this undertaking. Using the principles of stoicism to motivate the modern reader into reaching their potential is a just and captivating pursuit.The reason why I rated it three stars are as follows:- Though there is an apparent close relationship between Greene and Holiday, Courage is Calling seems to contradict 'Greeneism' in many ways. My take from much of Greene's work is that the world is harsh and competitive and you need to use subtlety and poise to navigate through life. Issues are nuanced, people are complex, so understanding people and using restraint in our interactions is key.Holiday in this book however [this is again my take] seems to champion a rather reckless and swashbuckling kamikaze approach. 'Just send that angry email', 'just quit your job', 'just move places'. It's all very emotional and drastic.I tend to adhere to Greene's way of looking at this, and so Holiday's proclamations come across as a naive and overly bolshy without regard to repercussions.How realistic is it to expect a working class 21 year old to just quit their job because they dislike their boss? In an age of intense competition for jobs, rising living costs, the ongoing pandemic. Of course Holiday would respond to this saying that courage is needed to make these big decisions, they can work out - but it just seems a bit too Hollywood happy ending, idealistic for my tastes. I tend to favour Greene's pragmatism. But that's just me.I just disagree with this idea that you should make yourself a matyr to make some kind of vague wider point; and I can't help but feel this take is derived from Holiday's own angst regarding an experience he had at American Apparel.- Holiday also lost me slightly when he throws in barbed comments about people he disagrees with on issues such as the COVID vaccine, Trump, voting left or right etc. I think these issues, whichever side you align with, are very charged and trigger emotional responses in us all. By declaring one side right and one side wrong, Holiday loses half the readership. It again seems to be naive from someone acting as an authority on human interaction.I fundamentally believe that there are certain subjects you're best off tackling in a diplomatic way or perhaps avoiding altogether, so the fact that Holiday seems to either ignore this understanding of human psychology or not care, then sullies my trust in him to advise me on how to interact with society.It is perhaps a feature from North America where this culture war is particularly toxic and is seeping into many other parts of the West now. This 'goodies v baddies', 2d cartoonish view of both sides of a political issue. It destroys nuance, and creates a very dim 'right v wrong' narrative.Linked to this is Holiday's attempts in the book to suggest some courage is bad, while other courage is good, and the determining factor of 'good or bad' seems to be whether the agents involved are people he politically aligns with., or those who are opposed. WW2 Japan 'bad', Abraham Lincoln 'good'. In reality no side is wholly good or bad, every cause is nuanced. Good and bad dwell on both sides of every debate.Holiday also mentions that you have a duty to act in advancing 'the truth' but again 'what is the truth?' everybody will have different perceptions, different opinions.It may be that the above is just a consequence of the author and I having different world views; and Holiday isn't to blame for seeing things differently to myself.I can only praise the undertaking, i just found I disagreed with Holiday on much. You should give it a read and make your own mind up. It is very readable, the chapters are short and choppy and the tone is informal so you can pick it up and read significant amounts at ease.

A phenomenal book and exceptional piece of literature. That I hope will stand the test of time. The last by note by Ryan has started a reconsideration and acceptances within myself. Thank you Ryan

To show up each day and keep fighting, it's exactly what I needed to hear 👌 fantastic read, highly recommend