The knock against the Los Angeles Rams for seasons now is that they have traded away too many of their first round draft picks. Monday morning quarterbacks and living room GMs seem to be convinced they know better. So does most of the sports media, who haven’t been afraid of criticizing the team’s moves—especially after losses and setbacks.
Les Snead, who we interviewed on the Daily Stoic podcast back in August, told us his strategy for ignoring this noise while building his second Super Bowl-bound team in four years.
I’ve taken a lot of wisdom from you and the Stoics. I intentionally practice Stoicism enough to know, ‘Okay, this comment or this tweet or this simple take shouldn’t disrupt or even ruffle my emotions’…I’m also aware that good television requires debate—someone has to take the side that the Rams are doing cool things and somebody has to take the side that they’re not. Then they banter about it—that’s all just noise that is part of being in this business. And if it gets you to doubt what you’re doing, your process was probably a little bit flawed.
Remember what Marcus Aurelius pointed out: We all care about ourselves…a lot. Yet for some strange reason we often value other people’s opinions of ourselves, of our actions and choices, more than our own. Often we cede authority to and accept the premise of arguments from people with no idea what they’re talking about!
When you know what you’re doing, Les explained, you have to let your competence double as armor against criticism and complaints. It’s not that he’s egotistical or that he thinks he’s better than anyone else who has his kind of job—it’s that he knows there was a well thought out strategy in place that guided their decisions to trade away all those first and second round picks (In short, the Rams view is that since drafting in the early rounds is so hit or miss, they’d rather trade for proven players than gamble on the potential of a first rounder, in order to win right now). And with this he can rest easy and move confidently in the work still in front of him.
A Stoic knows what they’re doing. They don’t wing it. They don’t react emotionally or do things without thinking about them. They have a process. This is not just a better way to make decisions, it’s also a way to better live with those decisions, no matter their outcome—even when they’re misunderstood, even when they’re doubted.
You don’t have time to care what other people think about the things you know. You can’t afford to spare the energy or the effort required to respond, because you need every bit of it to get better, to make the next set of important decisions. It is your opinion, your standards, your strategy that you should care about most—those are the things that are going to help you win now.
You can listen to our full interview with Les Snead here on The Daily Stoic podcast, which has hit over 70 million downloads worldwide! Thank you to everyone who has listened. And if you haven’t already, please subscribe! And to watch the video of our interview with Les Snead on the Daily Stoic YouTube channel, click here!
