We need greater virtues to sustain good than evil fortune.

— François de La Rochefoucauld

LEADERSHIP

WHAT THIS MEANS

Hard times call for endurance, which is uncomfortable but fairly clear about what it wants from you. Good times ask for something harder: staying decent when nothing is forcing you to, keeping your judgement when everyone is agreeing with you, not growing careless because the margin is wide. Adversity concentrates a person. Prosperity loosens them, and loosening is difficult to notice from inside.

If things are going well, pick the discipline you have quietly let slide and put it back. And find someone who knew you before the good stretch, and give them permission to tell you if you have changed.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

Who did you become the last time things went well?

MORE IN AMBITION, SUCCESS & LEGACY

Free, with nothing to buy inside it.