![]() The Reverend Wright scandal, a frustrating case where your help goes unappreciated, the death of a loved one, none of those are “opportunities” in the normal sense of the word. The common refrain about entrepreneurs is that they take advantage of, even create, opportunities. He said something like ‘when the story broke I realized the best thing to do wasn’t damage control, it was to speak to Americans like adults.’ And what he ended up doing was turning a negative situation into the perfect platform for his landmark speech about race. It should sound familiar because it is the same thinking behind Obama’s “teachable moments.” Right before the election, Joe Klein asked Obama how he’d made his decision to respond to the Reverend Wright scandal. ![]() ![]() “ The impediment to action advances action. ![]() Or, the death of someone close to you a chance to show fortitude. Instead of making your life more difficult, the exercise says, they’re actually directing you towards new virtues for example, patience or understanding. Suppose for a second that you are trying to help someone and they respond by being surly or unwilling to cooperate. Because if you can properly turn a problem upside down, every “bad” becomes a new source of good. What they meant to do was make it impossible to not practice the art of philosophy. The Stoics had an exercise called Turning the Obstacle Upside Down. ![]() Don’t feel harmed and you haven’t been.” – Marcus Aurelius “Choose not to be harmed and you won’t feel harmed. ![]()
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