"Don't trust in your reputation, money, or position, but in the strength that is yours--namely, your judgments about the things that you control and don't control. For this alone is what makes us free and unfettered, that picks us up by the neck from the depths and lifts us eye to eye with the rich and powerful."

On trial before an Athenian jury, Socrates refused to flatter, parade his children, or beg for mercy, saying his duty was to speak what he judged true. When friends arranged his escape, he declined, holding that breaking the laws would be unjust, even to save his life. With no reputation, money, or office to shield him, he trusted only his judgment about what was in his control, and met the powerful eye to eye.

Freedom is defined precisely as the right judgments about what is and isn't yours, rather than the establishment of wealth, rank, or power. Do not trust reputation, money, or position. They depend on others and chance. Instead, trust your judgments which distinguish what is up to you (assent, choice, action) from what is not (outcomes, opinions, fortune). This becomes your inner freedom, unfettered by praise or blame, equal in dignity to the "rich and powerful".

Common Errors to Discard

1. Substituting props for power: Don't mistake leverage (budget, title, followers) for strength. These are borrowed.
2. Outsourcing mood: Don't let market moves, metrics, or gossip set your state. This is voluntary servitude.
3. Instrumental virtue: "I'll be honest because it boosts my brand." No. That is still slavery to reputation.
4. Focusing on impressions: Don't try to manage impressions instead of mastering action.

Modern Life

• Career: Build capability and character. Treat title and visbility like the weather. Speak truth once to power, and refuse flattery as a strategy.
• Money: Earn and deploy prudently. Don't anchor identity to net worth. Use loss as training in indifference and resourcefulness.
• Social media: Post if useful. Disable counters, and measure by the quality of what you contribute.
• Negotiations: Enter with non-attachment to the deal. Your strength is clarity, patience, and walk-away power, not posturing.
• Crisis: Strip it down to what is yours: assessment, decisive action, steadiness. Outsiders may panic, but you do not.

Maxims

• Strength is right judgment, not right optics.
• Do what is yours, release what is not.
• Use wealth and rank virtuously, never obey them.
• Say the truth once, and need no audience.