{"id":9713,"date":"2020-10-08T18:04:22","date_gmt":"2020-10-08T22:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/?p=9713"},"modified":"2020-10-08T18:04:22","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T22:04:22","slug":"its-only-after-youve-lost-everything-that-youre-free-to-do-anything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/its-only-after-youve-lost-everything-that-youre-free-to-do-anything\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Only After You\u2019ve Lost Everything That You\u2019re Free to Do Anything"},"content":{"rendered":"

One day late in the fourth century BC, the Phoenician merchant Zeno set sail on the Mediterranean Sea with a cargo full of Tyrian purple dye. Prized by the wealthy and by royalty, who dressed themselves in clothes colored with it, the rare dye was painstakingly extracted by slaves from the blood of sea snails and dried in the sun until it was, as one ancient historian said, \u201cworth its weight in silver.\u201d This was Zeno\u2019s family trade. They trafficked in one of the most valuable goods in the ancient world, and as it has always been for entrepreneurs, their business was on the line seemingly every day.<\/span><\/p>\n

On that fateful day, a day not unlike one you may have experienced, Zeno lost everything. His ship wrecked upon the rocks, his cargo lost to the sea. We\u2019re not sure what caused the wreck, but it devastated him financially, physically, emotionally. It could have been the end of his story\u2014the loss could have driven him to drink or suicide, or a quiet ordinary life in the service of others. Instead, it set in motion the creation of Stoicism, one of the greatest intellectual and spiritual movements in history.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI made a prosperous voyage,\u201d Zeno later joked, \u201cwhen I suffered shipwreck.\u201d Indeed, we were all richer for it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This story is worth telling and retelling for a reason. Maybe you just found out your husband is leaving you. Maybe you just got news that an accountant has embezzled your hard earned savings. Maybe the pandemic has taken someone you loved. Maybe it\u2019s taken <\/span>something <\/span><\/i>you loved\u2014a job, a hobby, a way of living.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These losses have left you hurting, financially, emotionally, psychologically. It\u2019s not unlike the way Zeno was left after his shipwreck. Who wouldn\u2019t feel that pain under similar circumstances? And yet, destabilizing events like this are not entirely bad. They shake things up. They force change. They ask new questions. \u201cIt\u2019s only after you\u2019ve lost everything,\u201d Tyler Durden says in <\/span>Fight Club<\/span><\/i>, \u201cthat you\u2019re free to do anything.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Zeno was freed by his misfortune. Life picked him up and shook off stale tradition and his family obligations. It threw him ashore penniless and lost, sure, but it also introduced him to philosophy. It put him on a path to greatness he could have never conceived of otherwise.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Your recent misfortune\u2014whatever it is\u2014could be that for you. But only if you choose for it to be.<\/span><\/p>\n

P.S.\u00a0<\/i>This was originally sent<\/i><\/span><\/a> on October 6, 2020. Sign up today for <\/i>the Daily Stoic\u2019s email<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0and get our popular\u00a0<\/i>free 7-day course on Stoicism.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One day late in the fourth century BC, the Phoenician merchant Zeno set sail on the Mediterranean Sea with a cargo full of Tyrian purple dye. Prized by the wealthy and by royalty, who dressed themselves in clothes colored with it, the rare dye was painstakingly extracted by slaves from the blood of sea snails […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nIt\u2019s Only After You\u2019ve Lost Everything That You\u2019re Free to Do Anything<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/its-only-after-youve-lost-everything-that-youre-free-to-do-anything\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"It\u2019s Only After You\u2019ve Lost Everything That You\u2019re Free to Do Anything\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One day late in the fourth century BC, the Phoenician merchant Zeno set sail on the Mediterranean Sea with a cargo full of Tyrian purple dye. 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