Cum să treci peste vremuri dificile prin aplicarea principiilor din filozofia stoică antică (Alexander Morsakov)

„Fii ca stânca de care se sparg necontenit valurile; dar stă ferm și îmblânzește furia apei din jurul ei.” — Marcus Aurelius

The FinTech industry is experiencing some difficult times due to an inflation spike, a number of crypto crashes, and a dramatic drop in the valuation of companies. All of this resulting in some massive layoffs. It’s quite risky to work in a startup, even
in good times, but given the current turmoil, people are facing even higher levels of uncertainty and stress, both personally and professionally. It’s no wonder that many begin to feel a sense of fear and anxiety in such an environment.

There are different approaches that could help people across the Fintech world and the broader startup ecosystem regain their confidence, cope with negative emotions, increase the level of resilience to overcome difficulties and find comfort in the face
of fear. One of them is Stoicism – an ancient practical philosophy which is also known as the philosophy of difficult times.

Studying an ancient philosophy may seem like a waste of time in today’s digital world, but think about the value something must hold for it to be passed on and used for over 2000 years and even up to this very day. Stoics were not only philosophers but also
some of the wealthiest and most influential people of their time, from political leaders and entrepreneurs to athletes. 

Stoicism was founded by Zeno, a Phoenician merchant in Athens, Greece, around 300 BC. He lost his entire fortune at sea after a shipwreck near Athens. It forced him to reconsider his priorities and led him to philosophy. Soon after that, Stoicism reached
Rome and was adopted by the Romans during their world dominance by 155 BC. 

Seneca, Epictet și Marcus Aurelius au contribuit cheie la filozofia stoică. Datorită lor, vechii stoici nu numai că au supraviețuit, ci și au prosperat în vremuri de tulburare și incertitudine. Deci, să vedem ce putem învăța de la ei.

Principle 1 – Focus on what you can control 

Dihotomia controlului este unul dintre conceptele importante ale stoicismului. Există lucruri pe care le poți controla și lucruri pe care nu le poți controla și este o pierdere totală de timp și energie să te concentrezi asupra celor din urmă.

„Ai putere asupra minții tale – nu evenimente din afara. Realizează asta și vei găsi putere.”― Marcus Aurelius, Meditații

A simple practice you can try is to divide a sheet of paper into two columns and list what is in your control and what is out of your control. You’ll most likely find a number of things that you can only observe and analyse (or refuse to observe them). And
this is fine. Focus your energy on what you can do right now and stop worrying about what you can’t control.

Can you control if a competitor launches a new product or service? Can you control a service malfunction or a missed deadline from your partner vendor? Definitely not, but you can control your reaction to these things and how you and your company choose
to respond. See it as a chance to re-engage or improve your product to make more customers happy. IT service outages can lead to improved monitoring that will make your systems more resilient.

Principle 2 – Preparing for failure 

Negative visualisation is one of the most powerful practices that the Stoics have gifted us. Any business and especially a startup could find itself in a crisis at any moment – the Stoics believed that their wealth and stature could be stripped away from
ei în orice moment. 

Stoics believed that a wise person would always be prepared for such drastic swings of misfortune because they’d visualise the events that could lead to what they feared and prepared themselves in advance.

“It is in times of security that the spirit should be preparing itself for difficult times; while fortune is bestowing favours on it is then is the time for it to be strengthened against her rebuffs.” – Seneca 

The Stoics used times of peace and tranquillity to prepare themselves for failure. Negative visualising and preparing for failure is something that tech leaders across the industry have taken up as part of their teams’ standard practices. For example, before
any product or project launches, teams will get together for a “premortem” workshop to imagine that the project ends up being a huge failure in a few weeks or months. From there, the team lists all the events that could bring about failure, what they could
do to better prepare for that failure, and how to recover. 

Treat potential failures as opportunities to improve, knowing that the only thing worse than falling is never getting back up.Hardship is inevitable for any business and “practising” misfortune and failures could help teams be better prepared for the hard
ori. 

Principle 3 – Acknowledge and learn from mistakes 

“If anyone can prove and show to me that I think and act in error, I will gladly change it for I seek the truth, by which no one has ever been harmed” – Marcus Aurelius

Being afraid of failing or being wrong is completely natural, however, setbacks and roadblocks to success are inevitable, especially in a startup. Failure is just an opportunity to search for the right product-market fit, the right marketing and sales strategies,
and to learn how something works through a series of experiments. That’s why startup founders and startup leaders should embrace being wrong as no one builds a business without encountering setbacks and failure. 

„Dacă ești învins o dată și îți spui că vei birui, dar continuă ca înainte, știi că în cele din urmă vei fi atât de bolnav și slăbit încât în ​​cele din urmă nici măcar nu vei observa greșeala ta și vei începe să-ți raționalizezi comportamentul.” — Epictet

Stoicii credeau că fiecare eșec aparent mare era un eveniment care trebuia îmbrățișat mai degrabă decât de rușine sau teamă. Ei își controlează în mod conștient reacțiile la probleme, modificându-și percepțiile și exersând să transforme obstacolele în oportunități  

Există multe exemple de lideri moderni care au aplicat o abordare similară pentru a vorbi despre eșec într-o lumină pozitivă, ceea ce a ajutat companiile lor să rămână rezistente și motivate în fața eșecurilor repetate.  

Jeff Bezos highlighted it in a 2015 letter to Amazon shareholders: “One area where I think we are especially distinctive is failure. I believe we are the best place in the world to fail (we have plenty of practice!), and failure and invention are inseparable
twins”

Bill Gates este un alt CEO care apreciază eșecul: „Este bine să sărbătorim succesul, dar este mai important să ținem cont de lecțiile eșecului.”

Stoic leadership also means taking responsibility for mistakes, even when they aren’t necessarily your fault. Being the “owners” and holding yourself accountable for everything happening in the business is one of the key principles of Vivid Money that we
live and breathe. 

Principle 4 – Embrace frugality

Stoicii au practicat și au susținut viața simplă și cumpătarea ca o modalitate de a te întări pentru a te pregăti pentru adversitate, ca o modalitate de a evita dezamăgirea. De exemplu, Marcus Aurelius a vândut multe dintre mobilierul palatului pentru a plăti datoria imperiului său.

Jeff Bezos a construit în mod intenționat Amazon cu o cultură a frugalității. De ce? „Cred că frugalitatea stimulează inovația, la fel ca și alte constrângeri”, a spus el. „Una dintre singurele moduri de a ieși dintr-o cutie strânsă este să-ți inventezi calea de ieșire.” 

Să rămâi înclinat la cheltuieli, să revizuiești constant planurile și să te adaptezi la amenințări în consecință pentru a reduce consumul de numerar este vital pentru multe startup-uri tehnologice pentru a supraviețui în vremuri de criză. 

Merită să studiezi și să exersezi pentru a reuși în momentele grele 

Stoicism is an ideal philosophy for the startup ecosystem. Stoicism has helped ancient rulers stay resilient in the face of adversity, and remain free from arrogance in the spotlight of success. The wisdom found in Stoicism will continue to help our modern
leaders practice courage, take risks and learn how to conquer their fear of failure in order to succeed in a startup or as a startup leader.

Hard times are inevitable in the highly competitive and fast-paced world of business. Stoicism helps to find comfort in the face of fear and helps you thrive despite the challenges you face. It’s for those who place more value on wisdom and self-discipline
rather than external events.