Books and Courses
I’ve written 12 best-selling books, covering topics like philosophy, marketing, history, and how to live well. Below you can find a list of all my books, along with links for purchasing them online. For my Stoic works, you can purchase a signed and personalized copy, and for a truly unique purchase, you can order the limited leather-bound edition of The Daily Stoic.
If you are in the Austin area and want to help support local independent bookstores, you can stop by The Painted Porch Bookshop, which I opened with my wife during the pandemic. In addition to carrying all of my titles, we carry many of the books I’ve used while writing and books we have loved over the years. If people want to discover new books and have a unique experience, they come to us.
At Daily Stoic, my site about Stoicism and philosophy, we’ve also put together a number of courses and challenges designed to test your limits and push you to excel in the things that matter most. Learn more about those below as well.
Books on Stoicism
Discipline is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control
I just released the second book in my Four Virtues Series, Discipline is Destiny, which celebrates the awesome power of self-discipline and those who have seized it. In a world of temptation and excess, this ancient idea is more urgent than ever. If you want to take a peek into my writing process for this book, you can check out this video.
Buy it now ( Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop | Painted Porch | Get it signed and personalized )
Courage is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave
The first book in my Four Virtues Series, Courage is Calling, I explore the most foundational virtue of all: Courage. Through engaging stories about historic and contemporary leaders,I show you how to conquer fear and practice courage in your daily life.
Buy it now ( Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop | Painted Porch | Get it signed and personalized )
The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph
My first book on Stoicism, The Obstacle Is the Way tells readers how to turn their thinking upside down and revisualize their obstacles as opportunities to persevere and excel.
Buy it now ( Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop | Painted Porch | Get it signed and personalized )
Ego Is the Enemy
As the author Cyril Connolly once said, “Ego sucks us down like the law of gravity.” In this book, the second in my series on Stoicism, I explore how Ego poses a threat to one’s goals—and how to fend it off, whether you’ve achieved success or hit rock bottom.
Buy it now ( Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop | Painted Porch | Get it signed and personalized )
Stillness Is the Key
The third book in my Stoic trilogy, I explain how an inner sense of calm and stillness is critical to achieving your goals and putting in the best performance.
Buy it now ( Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop | Painted Porch | Get it signed and personalized )
The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
The first page-a-day book on Stoicism. Each day features a different quote from a preeminent Stoic philosopher, along with an exploration of the ideas raised by the quote. The months are grouped thematically to help you get a complete and thorough understanding of Stoicism.
Buy it now ( Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop | Painted Porch | Get it signed and personalized |
Get the leather-bound edition )
The Daily Stoic Journal: 366 Days of Writing and Reflection on the Art of Living
A great companion to The Daily Stoic. This journal features three prompts, guided by an insightful Stoic quote, for every day of the year. Take your study of Stoicism to the next level.
Buy it now ( Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop | Painted Porch | Get it signed and personalized )
Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius
Lives of the Stoics goes in-depth into the lives and practices of the great philosophers who defined and popularized Stoicism. From key figures like Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus to lesser-known Stoics like Agrippinus and Thrasea, I walk through their contributions to the philosophy and how they continue to inspire us today.
Buy it now ( Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop | Painted Porch | Get it signed and personalized )
Books on Marketing and Media
Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator
My very first book, Trust Me, I’m Lying discusses the 21st century media ecosystem—how it works, who benefits from it, and how to manipulate it. I discuss the PR stunts and disruptive strategies I used to manipulate the media and garner publicity for my clients, and what it all means for our increasingly-online society. You can get the updated 2017 version which discusses the topic in the post-Trump, post-Gawker age.
Buy it now ( Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop | Painted Porch )
Growth Hacker Marketing: A Primer on the Future of PR, Marketing, and Advertising
In Growth Hacker Marketing, I explain how to build the kind of explosive growth that can turn a product launch into a massive event, or transform your app into the next Silicon Valley unicorn. I discuss the strategies I’ve used to get people hooked on my clients’ services, and how you can utilize them.
Buy it now ( Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop | Painted Porch )
Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work that Lasts
I spend a lot of time reading, and I’ve often wondered while reading a classic work, “What gave this such staying power?” In Perennial Seller, I explore what gives a product or a project staying power, and I help readers find those insights for their own work.
Buy it now ( Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop | Painted Porch )
Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue
In 2016, Gawker Media was destroyed by a defamation lawsuit filed by Hulk Hogan. During the trial, it became evident that billionaire Peter Thiel had funded the lawsuit to destroy Gawker. I spent time interviewing Thiel, Nick Denton (the founder of Gawker Media), and the other people whose lives were shaped by the lawsuit. The result: Conspiracy, perhaps my favorite book I’ve ever written.
Buy it now ( Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop | Painted Porch )
My Courses
New Year, New You Challenge
Every January 1 we begin our New Year, New You Challenge, a 21-day course built around the best, most timeless wisdom in Stoic philosophy. It’s our most-popular course with new content every year guided by thousands of responses and reactions to our previous challenges, courses, videos, and emails. It’s a whole new internal adventure based on painstaking research and timeless principles and the most current science, for an all-new, life changing experience.
Signups start every year mid-December
Read to Lead: A Daily Stoic Reading Challenge
For me, reading isn’t a diversion or a way to kill time—it’s part of my job, the way that I learn what and how to write, the way that I improve my own life. I wanted to share my process and the insights I’ve learned with fans of Daily Stoic. The results: one of our most popular courses. Features over a hundred book recommendations, challenges that will push you to excel as a reader and become a leader, and more.
Leadership Challenge
We designed this 9-week course to mirror the kind of education that produced historically great leaders like Marcus Aurelius. Specifically, we built it around one of the key lessons from Marcus’s own development: the idea that leadership is less a position and more a process.
Taming Your Temper: The 11-Day Stoic Guide to Controlling Anger
Everyone gets angry sometimes. But there are some people who can’t seem to hold back from a provocation or let go of a grudge. We created this course to help anyone with an anger problem relinquish it permanently. Techniques distilled from the wisdom of the Stoic philosophers will help you take back control of your emotions and make life easier for you and your family.
Slay Your Stress
It’s hard to manage anxiety when there are so many stressors out there: money, work, family, school, politics, and more. But if we don’t deal with our stress, it makes us less effective, irritable and unable to get anything done. We created this course so that you could learn effective, time-tested methods of coping with—and eventually eliminating—your stress and anxiety.
Stoicism 101 Challenge
I’ve taught Stoicism in NFL locker rooms, Fortune 500 boardrooms, in front of TED audiences, and to millions of people with my books. In this course I’ll be your personal teacher for 14 days where you will learn what stoicism is, who were the Stoics, why some of history’s greatest leaders practiced Stoicism in their daily lives and how you can consistently apply Stoicism to your life.
Habits for Success, Habits for Happiness
The way you start the day, the routine by which you accomplish your tasks, the manner in which you prepare for the future: these are all affected by your habits. Good habits can make the hardest tasks seem simple; bad habits cause the smallest issues to derail your efforts. This course, our longest yet, will put you through a six-week habit boot camp. Whether you don’t know the best habits or you want to lose some of your worst ones, this course is perfect for anyone.
Alive Time Challenge
We released this course at the onset of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic to help anyone who felt unnerved or shaken by the new challenges that the pandemic brought with them. While the pandemic lockdowns have lifted here in the U.S., the idea of turning negative circumstances into positive ones still applies.
The Stoic Parent: 10 Commandments For Becoming A Better Parent
As a parent, your most important job is raising your kids the right way. But how do you figure out what exactly you need to teach your kids? It’s not always easy to know. That’s why we created this parenting course, based on tried-and-true parenting tactics from some of the smartest, most virtuous people in history. You’ll learn the 10 Commandments of Parenting, the ultimate guideposts to orient your parenting around, and will be able to forge a stronger connection with your children.