{"id":8285,"date":"2020-04-06T17:50:37","date_gmt":"2020-04-06T21:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/?p=8285"},"modified":"2020-04-06T18:11:15","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T22:11:15","slug":"covid-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/covid-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"A Crisis Can Make You Better. But Only If You Have This Mindset"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Sign up for the Daily Stoic Alive Time Challenge<\/a>\u201414 days of actionable challenges rooted in the best of Stoic philosophy\u2014and emerge from this crisis stronger!<\/em><\/p>\n

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Before he was an oilman, John D. Rockefeller was a bookkeeper and aspiring investor\u2014a small-time financier in Cleveland, Ohio. The son of a criminal who\u2019d abandoned his family, the young Rockefeller took his first job in 1855 at the age of sixteen (a day he celebrated as \u201cJob Day\u201d for the rest of his life). All was well enough at fifty cents a day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then the panic struck. Specifically, the Panic of 1857, a massive financial crisis that originated in Ohio and hit Cleveland particularly hard. As businesses failed and the price of grain plummeted across the country, westward expansion quickly came to a halt. The result was a crippling national depression that lasted for several years.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a situation similar to what we\u2019re in today with COVID-19. Business closed, the stock market plummeted, and bankruptcies skyrocketed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rockefeller could have gotten scared. Here was the greatest market depression in history and it hit him just as he was finally getting the hang of things. He could have pulled out and run like his father. He could have quit finance altogether for a different career with less risk. But even as a young man, Rockefeller had sangfroid: unflappable coolness under pressure. He could keep his head while he was losing his shirt. Better yet, he kept his head while everyone else lost theirs. \u201cThe more agitated others became,\u201d biographer Ron Chernow wrote<\/a>, \u201cthe calmer he grew.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It echoed what Marcus Aurelius<\/a> wrote in his Meditations<\/em><\/a> nearly 2,000 years before:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBe like the rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands unmoved and the raging of the sea falls still around it.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And so instead of bemoaning this economic upheaval, Rockefeller, like Marcus, observed the momentous events. Almost perversely, he chose to look at it all as an opportunity<\/a> to learn, a baptism in the market. He quietly saved his money and watched what others did wrong. He saw the weaknesses in the economy that many took for granted and how this left them all unprepared for change or shocks.<\/span><\/p>\n

The same choice we have in front of us today<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

From the first crisis he experienced, Rockefeller internalized an important lesson that would stay with him forever: The market was inherently unpredictable and often vicious\u2014only the rational and disciplined mind could hope to profit from it. Speculation led to disaster, he realized, and he needed to always ignore the \u201cmad crowd\u201d and its inclinations. There is always a countermove, always a way through, a path is always there for those willing to look for it then take it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It was this intense self-discipline and objectivity that allowed Rockefeller to seize advantage from obstacle after obstacle<\/a> in his life, during the Civil War, and the panics of 1873, 1907, and 1929. As he once put it: He was inclined to see the opportunity in every disaster<\/a>. To that we could add: He had the strength to resist temptation or excitement, no matter how seductive, no matter the situation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For the rest of his life, the greater the chaos, the calmer Rockefeller would become, particularly when others around him were either panicked or mad with greed. He would make much of his fortune during these market fluctuations\u2014because he could see while others could not. This insight lives on today in Warren Buffet\u2019s famous adage to \u201cbe fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.\u201d Rockefeller, like all great investors, could resist impulse in favor of cold, hard common sense.<\/span><\/p>\n

Was he born this way? No. This was learned behavior. And Rockefeller got this lesson in discipline somewhere. It began in that crisis of 1857. In what he called \u201cthe school of adversity and stress.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOh, how blessed young men are who have to struggle for a foundation and beginning in life,\u201d he once said<\/a>. \u201cI shall never cease to be grateful for the three and half years of apprenticeship and the difficulties to be overcome, all along the way.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Or as another stoic Epictetus<\/a> said:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe true man is revealed in difficult times. So when trouble comes, think of yourself as a wrestler whom God, like a trainer, has paired with a tough young buck. For what purpose? To turn you into Olympic-class material.\u201d<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, many people experienced the same perilous times as Rockefeller\u2014they all attended the same school of bad times. But few reacted as he did\u2014without the pestilence of panic or fear. Few had the discipline in perception<\/a> to see clearly that there <\/span>is <\/span><\/i>a proper course of action in every situation. Not many had trained themselves to see opportunity inside this obstacle<\/a>, that what befell them was not unsalvageable misfortune but the gift of education\u2014a chance to learn from a rare moment in economic history.<\/span><\/p>\n

A rare moment much like we\u2019re in now with COVID-19. The stock market has lost 30% in the past month. The US government announced an unprecedented $2 trillion bailout package. Many people will face real crises, many will not emerge from the other side stronger. We can see disaster rationally<\/a>. Or rather, like Rockefeller, we can see <\/span>opportunity <\/span><\/i>in every disaster, and transform this crisis into an education<\/a>, a skill set, or a fortune. Seen properly, everything that happens is a chance to move forward. If we are able:<\/span><\/p>\n