The Obstacle is the Way
A Review with the African Youth in Mind
Everybody is faced with obstacles — who isn’t? However, a lot of people will agree with me that youth in Africa have got their fair share of them. Right from the cradle, their life’s chances are dominated by extraordinary levels of obstacles. Born in Sierra Leone, a girl has a one in four chance of dying before her fifth birthday. And if she happens to be born into a family with three siblings, she will have a one in four chance of going to college — a chance that decreases as the number of her siblings increases (which is not uncommon in many parts of Africa). Whereas her mates in most parts of the developed world can expect to live to eighty, she will be very lucky to make it past fifty.
For today’s youth, living in Nigeria amounts to living in perpetual fear. Fear of religious extremists in Boko Haram occupied regions, fear of kidnapping by armed herdsmen invading many villages and neighbourhood forests across the country, fear of trigger-happy policemen and political thugs ever ready to shoot at the slightest provocation, and so on. Should you be lucky to get into a university in Nigeria, survive incessant strikes that have made it the norm that students complete a four-year study program in six to seven years, and eventually graduate, you will have slightly more than a fifty percent chance of getting a job. Wow! And amid your joblessness, you still have to deal with the reality that those very jobs, which were never openly advertised, are now taken up and being messed up by people who have neither the competence nor the interest to execute them, but only got hired because they are from the favored tribe or have a tobacco-sniffing senator as godfather.
In this book, Ryan Holliday has a message for you — one that is steeped in ancient wisdom and stoic philosophy. A message that comes with examples of real people that have lived it. A simple and practical way to turn those obstacles you face into triumphs.
What’s so remarkable about this message is that it was articulated and written by one of the world’s great philosophers, Marcus Aurelius in his private diary to guide himself as the Emperor of Rome about 2000 years ago. And here is it:
“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
In other words, there is nearly 99.9% probability that those obstacles facing you, those problems you are stuck in — be they systemic obstacles (e.g. bad governance, corruption in the public and private sector, country of citizenship, unfair laws and regulations, corruption, university strike, lack of infrastructure, prejudice, etc.) or personal challenges (too short, too tall, too old, being born into the wrong family, not beautiful or handsome enough, disability, money, mindset, lack of education, attended the wrong school, fear, envy, uncertainty, inexperience, self-doubt, etc.) — are opportunities to help you to succeed in life and achieve that greatness you so desire. Opportunities for you to stand up and show the world what you are made of — in spite of any real or imaginary shortcomings.
To drive home the point of this message, Ryan told a Zen story about a king whose people have grown soft, entitled, selfish and corrupt (sounds familiar?). To teach them a lesson, he placed a large boulder in the middle of the main road under which he hid a priceless treasure. Many of his subjects came to this impediment and turned away. I suppose some even devised a shortcut to selfishly get only themselves and their families through. But after several days, one man came, pushed hard and didn’t give up. He crafted a wooden lever with which he dislodged the rock. And lo and behold, there was the golden treasure and a note, which said:
“Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition”
Ryan went on to pack the book with stories of real people who have transformed their lives and the world by turning adversity into advantage — from John D. Rockefeller (America’s oil magnate, known for his cool-headedness and self-discipline), Abraham Lincoln (America’s most influential president, renowned for his humility, endurance and compassionate will), Rubin “Hurricane” Carter (an American-Canadian middleweight boxer who refused to give up his “power of the mind” when he was wrongly imprisoned for nearly 20 years for a crime he did not commit) to Thomas Edison, Margaret Thatcher, Ulysses S. Grant, Steve Jobs and Barack Obama.
No matter what’s holding us back. No matter what obstacle you are facing. The book makes it clear that we can and should turn our obstacles into triumphs, and it shows us a formula for doing that — cultivate discipline at three interdependent levels: Perception, Action and Will.
The Discipline of Perception
Social scientists make a distinction between objective reality (the world out there, mind-independent) and subjective reality (the world in here, mind-dependent). One of the theories underlying this piece of knowledge, known as the Thomas theorem of sociology, states that “if [people] define situations as real, they are real in their consequences”. This concept resonates with the book’s message on the critical role of perception in turning obstacles into triumphs. The world out there is “neither good nor bad”. It is our perception of events in the world, i.e. the story we tell ourselves about what the events mean that defines our reality and gives the events power over us. If we approach the world around us with subjectivity, fear and short-sightedness, we add to our troubles and we miss the hidden opportunities. But if we do as the ancients did — remain calm and imperturbable, filter our prejudice, expectations and fear, and separate reliable signals from deceptive ones, we are able to take control of our lives and over the world.
This idea of perceiving obstacles differently usually sounds academic. But, trust me — this book makes it concrete, and uses stories of real people to illustrate its practicality and efficacy. Two of the stories stand out, namely 1) the story of how John D. Rockefeller learned to steady himself during the Panic of 1857, and the lessons that shaped him into one of America’s best known investors of all time, and 2) the story of Steve Jobs’ idea of what observers call his “reality distortion field” and how it helped him become notoriously dismissive of such phrases as “It can’t be done” or “We need more time”, and consequently become one of the world’s greatest innovators.
One of my key takeaways from this section is encapsulated by the opening quote of the chapter on “Finding the Opportunity,” namely
A wise person dyes events with his own color … and turns whatever happens to his own benefit.
It is easy and okay to lament about one’s situation, but what would be better and more effective is to do something to change the situation. And the first step to doing something is to see the situation differently — to interpret it as an opportunity.
Let’s take for example a circumstance that many youth in Africa face: unemployment. What if we regard it as an opportunity to learn a new skill in addition to our university major, say Python Programming or UX Design? What if we interpret it as an opportunity to adapt our core skills in Architecture or Quantity Surveying, for example, to UX Design? Who knows, you could come up with new and innovative ideas for a startup. Take another one example: university strike. As an engineering student, what if we take the strike as an opportunity to apprentice with a roadside mechanic and gain hands-on experience in car repair?
It’s important to point out that there are factors that often becloud our sense of perception and make it difficult for us to see obstacles as opportunities. For youth in Africa, two of those stand out: one is what I call blindfold religiosity, which makes us prone to dismiss obstacles as divinely ordained. Faced with a circumstance, we would say in Pidgin English parlance, “Na so God wantam” without first asking the right questions. Could it be that the real “divinely ordained goal” in that very circumstance is for us to think differently and push ourselves beyond our current limits? The other one is miseducation, which teaches us that our own knowledge systems and traditional technologies are inadequate, and that any effective solution to our problems cannot come from within us, but from China, Europe and America.
At the end of this section, you are able to see the obstacles differently and uncover the opportunities inherent in them. As the author noted, “Socrates had a mean, nagging wife; he always said that being married to her was good practice for philosophy.”
The Discipline of Action
The second section of the book deals with how to take action. The author makes it clear that it’s not just any action, but directed action. As a result, it must be intentional, tactical, deployed strategically in the service of the whole, and applied with persistence, flexibility and courage.
This section uses inspiring stories to illustrate the different attributes of the right and effective action required to dismantle the obstacles in front of us. One such action is persistent action, and to illustrate its power, the section opens with the story of Demosthenes, one of the greatest orators of history. Demosthenes was disadvantaged by nature (born sickly and frail with speech impairment), and had his inheritance stolen by the people he depended on. Yet, he didn’t give up. He rather devised an exercise where he filled his mouth with peebles and practised speaking, rehearsed giving entire speeches with a single breadth, and locked himself in a dugout to study and educate himself. In dealing with this unfair reality of his circumstances, Demosthenes took action to transform himself into one of the greatest orators of Athens.
The rest of the section is packed with other equally powerful stories. For example, the story of Amelia Earhart — the great aviator and first woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic — illustrates the value of starting small (with an eye to climbing the ladder) even when people prejudge you and doubt your ability because who you are or what part of the world you are from. Not minding the pretty demeaning and offensive job offer she got, Amelia took the proposition because she knew it would provide her the first steps to reaching her ultimate goal. Other stories in the section illustrate the tenacity and persistence of Ulysses S. Grant and Thomas Edison, and show how repeated actions, taken from many different angles, slowly and surely churn the solution to the top of the pile.
As far as I’m concerned, youth in Africa understand the value of action — a part of Holliday’s message — but don’t apply it with discipline. By dint of our everyday life in Africa, most of us are malleable and even “stoic”, and we don’t easily fold when dealt a bad hand. Indeed, we have a remarkable way of bearing and dealing with obstacles. But here’s the problem: we deal with obstacles much like a cow standing in the rain — we endure the pain and passively hope for the best. When we eventually do anything, we do it not with an eye to understand and solve the problem (for all) or turn it into a triumph (for ourselves), but rather to cleverly wriggle our way out of it, and then pass the burden onto the next person in a very selfish manner. As Ryan noted, a true Stoic doesn’t just endure an obstacle, rather they evaluate the situation in a realistic and pragmatic way, and then attempt to solve the problem.
I think most of us will find the chapter titled, “Anticipation (Thinking Negatively),” relevant. It dives into a concept called “premortem”, which Ryan points out dates back to the stoics, and which is often used by project stakeholders to discuss why a campaign or project failed before it is even rolled out. It can be applied by individuals and groups to “pre-analyze” any situation or task and suggest reasons for failure, with the hope that by enumerating them at the start they can be avoided.
A key takeaway from this section is that having analyzed the obstacle in front of us, we must be willing to roll the dice and deploy the right action wholeheartedly to dismantle it — even if we fail in the process. Quoting Duke Ellington, Ryan notes that “problems are a chance for us to do our best,” not the impossible.
The Discipline of Will
As the author notes, if action is what we do when we still have some agency over the obstacles we face, will is what we depend on when agency has all but disappeared. It is that “internal power” we have that can never be affected by the outside world.
Like the previous two sections, this section uses inspiring stories to illustrate the role of will power in triumphing over our obstacles. The first one was the story of Abraham Lincoln. The author notes that for most of his life, this iconic American president and epitome of democratic leadership suffered personal challenges and great difficulties, including a crippling depression, which were “so intense that he came to believe they were destined for him in some way, but which many people are unaware of. As the nation called for a leader of magnanimity during the Civil War, Lincoln found purpose and relief in a cause bigger than himself and his personal struggles. As the book notes, althoughLincoln was smart, crafty and ambitious his real strength was his will. According to the author, this strength came through in the way he was able to resign himself to the obstacles he faced without giving in to hopelessness, the way he could use his own private turmoil to teach and help others, and the way he was able to rise above the din and see politics philosophically. “This too shall pass” was Lincoln’s favorite saying.
The section also tells the story of Theodore Roosevelt, who was sickly and fragile as a boy but through willpower, remade his body and developed what the Stoics would call an Inner Citadel — that fortress inside of all of us that no external adversity can ever break down. Other lessons worthy of note in this section include loving whatever happens to us (amor fati) and meditating on our mortality (memento mori).
Essentially, this section shows that developing the discipline of will comprises two things, namely accepting our situation 1) as the will of God and 2) as a learning/humbling experience and an opportunity to provide comfort to others. As the author notes, “Try ‘God willing’ over ‘the will to win’ or ‘willing it into existence,’ for even those attributes can be broken.” The kind of will required to triumph over any obstacles facing us calls for “quiet humility, resilience, and flexibility,” and abhors shortcuts, narrow-mindedness, malpractices, egoism or quick fix options.
The Book in Popular Culture
It is worthy of note that this book is eminently practical. In addition, it’s short and easy-read. Over the years, it has gained popularity as a self-help book among NFL players and coaching staffs, and college basketball teams. In 2014, Michael Lombardi and Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots distributed copies of the book to their staff and players as they headed to their Super Bowl victory. A popular American sports magazine, Sports Illustrated, calls it, “The book on stoicism that’s taking the NFL by storm.” Company CEOs and celebrities such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and LL Cool J have supposedly read and recommended the book. Chris Guillebeau, author of The $100 Startup, calls it the “surprising book [that] shows you how to craft a life of wonder by embracing obstacles and challenges.”
Conclusion
It’s okay, and even justified, to feel that the stack is against you. Everyone does a times. But you must not let it limit who you are or what you are capable of doing. As Ryan put,
Whatever we face, we have a choice: Will we be blocked by obstacles, or will we advance through and over them?
At the time that Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela led historical changes for their countries, the world was clearly stacked against them. King was arrested mostly on trumped-up charges and imprisoned 29 times. The U.S. Government had Mandela on terrorist watch lists until 2008. But those never stopped them. I don’t know what your obstacles are. But this is what I know, they should not, and must not, be an excuse to realize your life purpose. If anything, this book is telling you categorically that they are opportunities.
Given that youth in Africa has got their fair share of obstacles, they have — logically speaking — a fair share of chances not only to overcome those obstacles, but to use them as a means to success. But, it has to start with equipping yourself with the mindset, philosophical principles and practical steps for doing that. And that’s what this book has offered you. Beware none but yourself — to borrow from the legendary musician and philosopher, Bob Marley — can turn those obstacles into triumphs.
If you are a college student in Africa, and you want to read this book but have difficulty getting a copy, email us at info@varsitymentor.org or varsitymentor@gmail.com, and we will send you a copy free of charge. Do this now. VarsityMentor is only able to redeem this offer for the first 20 students.
If you enjoyed this post, get in touch to learn more about what we do at VarsityMentor to tackle the problem of graduate unemployment in Africa.
Originally published at https://varsitymentor.org.
