"Fate leads the willing and drags along the reluctant."

In 401 BC, an army of ten thousand Greek mercenaries found themselves stranded in the heart of the Persian Empire. Their employer was dead. Their top generals had just been tricked and murdered at a fake peace conference. They were a thousand miles from home, without food, surrounded by millions of hostile Persians.

Most of the men sat down and waited to die. They were paralyzed by the unfairness of it all. The fate was too heavy. A young student of Socrates named Xenophon stood up. He didn't complain about the murdered generals. He didn't scream at the gods. He accepted the brutal reality instantly. He told the men they had to stop wishing for a rescue that wasn't coming. They had to fight their way out. The Greeks elected him to lead. He marched them north through mountains and snow. They fought enemy tribes every single day. Eventually, they saw the Black Sea and made it home.

Seneca translates a Greek concept into a single, brutal truth. Fate is a moving cart. You're a dog tied to the back of it. You have two choices. You can trot along behind the cart willingly. You get some slack in the rope, the conditions to be able to look around, and to maintain your dignity.

Or, you can refuse to walk. You can dig your paws into the dirt and whine, yelling that the cart is going the wrong way. The cart doesn't care. It keeps moving. If you refuse to walk, the rope pulls tight, and you get dragged over the rocks. You get bloodied and broken, ending up at the exact same destination, but arriving there in agony.

Xenophon chose to walk. The men who sat down to cry were dragged into slavery or death. You can't negotiate with reality. You can only choose your posture.

Errors & Corrections

• Don't fight the math. We waste time arguing with facts. The account is overdrawn. The deadline is tomorrow. The client canceled. Staring at the screen and being angry doesn't change the math. Accept the math and start solving the equation.
• Don't wait for an apology. You want life to say it's sorry for treating you badly. Life doesn't apologize. While you wait for an apology, the cart keeps moving. You're just losing ground.
• Don't play the victim. It feels good to tell everyone how unfair your situation is. It gets you sympathy. But sympathy doesn't get you out of Persia. Taking ownership does.

Applications to Modern Life

Work

Your company kills a project you worked on for six months. You can be angry. You can drag your feet and complain to your coworkers every day. That's getting dragged. The project is dead either way. The willing employee archives the files, asks for the next assignment, and starts building again.

Leadership

A new technology makes your core product obsolete. A bad CEO spends two years suing competitors and lobbying for protection. They get dragged into bankruptcy. A Stoic CEO accepts the death of the old product. They pivot the company and start building the new technology. They lead the willing into the future.

Athleticism & Sport

You train for a marathon on flat roads. On race day, you find out the course was rerouted over three massive hills. You can curse the race director and ruin your time. Or you can accept the hills. You shorten your stride and lean into the incline. You let fate lead you up the mountain.

Politics

An election puts a leader you despise into power. You can spend four years in a state of constant outrage. You can scream at the television. That's just digging your paws into the dirt. The willing citizen accepts the reality of the vote. They organize locally and prepare for the next cycle.

Social Media

The platform changes its algorithm. Your reach drops by half. You write long posts complaining about the unfairness. The algorithm can't read your complaints. It drags you into obscurity. The willing creator studies the new rules and adapts their content.

Interpersonal Relationships

A relationship ends. You refuse to accept it. You text them late at night. You stalk their social accounts. You're being dragged over the rocks of your own memory. The willing partner accepts the closure. They delete the number and start walking forward alone.

Maxims

• Walk or be dragged.
• The cart doesn't stop.
• Acceptance is an active posture.

In-depth Concepts

Fatum (Fate)

The Roman word for fate comes from the verb "to speak." It means the thing that has been spoken by the gods. It is the script of the universe. The Stoic doesn't try to rewrite the script. They just try to play their assigned role perfectly.

The Dog and the Cart

This metaphor was originally created by the early Stoics Zeno and Cleanthes. Seneca translated Cleanthes's poem into Latin. It remains the most perfect visual representation of the Stoic concept of free will. We don't choose the destination. We only choose whether we walk or get dragged.