Brian Johnson (Heroic +1 #1,463) offers a short reflection on "true success," drawing on Tom Morris's readings of Socrates and Plato. He contrasts common backwards priorities (attending to externals first) with Socratic emphasis on the "state of the soul" and arete (inner excellence), arguing that inner excellence produces external goods. Johnson connects this to his Heroic app mission—practical cultivation of inner greatness—and signals a forthcoming segment on Jack Canfield's #1 success principle.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Heroic plus one. In our last plus one, we hit the jackpot with a search for success in the Heroic app. We uncovered hundreds of references to that keyword. And I shared a list of some of my favorite notes on books with success in their titles. Check out that plus one for more. We got a ton of notes that I think you will enjoy. Now, I'm having fun working my way back through the rereads of those notes, and I'm excited to share some of my favorite ideas in the days and weeks ahead. Today we're going to spend another moment with Tom Morris talking about true success. Then we'll have some fun with Jack Canfield and his number one success principle. Now, as we've discussed many times, Tom got two PhDs from Yale, one in philosophy and the other in religion. I originally got into his work because my friend John Mackey, the former CEO of Whole Foods, told me he had read every one of Tom's books and encouraged me to do the same. We featured not only true success, but also the Art of Achievement, the Stoic Art of Living, Superheroes in Philosophy, Plato's Lemonade Stand, and the Everyday Patriot. Check them all out. Each of those notes is packed with grounded, practical, ancient wisdom. And today we're going to talk about what Socrates and Plato have to say about true success. Tom tells us, and I quote, as reported by Plato in his famous apology, Socrates was convinced that most of us approach life backwards. We give the most attention to the least important things and the least attention to the most important things. It was his firm belief that wealth does not bring about excellence. And by the way, arete is excellence in that context. But excellence or arete brings about wealth and all other public and private blessings for men. Now, Tom continues by saying it was the state of our souls that was most important to Socrates. The inner life of each person, greatness of spirit, wisdom, inner excellence. When we give precedence to the inner, both inner and outer fall into place. When we follow the opposite course, nothing will give us what we truly need. Only emptiness will result. End quote. That's today's plus one. And that, my dear hero, is why we architected our entire app and our entire business. To help you move from theory to practice to mastery so we can do one thing together. The ultimate game of life is simple. It's time to put the most attention on the most important things. It's time to tap into our greatness of spirit. It's time to activate our soul force. Today.
