Ryan Holiday (born June 16, 1987) is an American author, public relations strategist, and modern advocate of Stoic philosophy. He is known for owning the Painted Porch Bookshop and hosting the podcast The Daily Stoic. Before becoming an author, he worked as a marketing director and advisor for American Apparel. His writing debut was in 2012 with the publication of “Trust Me, I’m Lying”.
Holiday began his professional career after dropping out of the University of California, Riverside, at the age of 19. He worked with Tucker Max and Robert Greene, author of “The 48 Laws of Power”, on Greene’s book, “The 50th Law”, which became a New York Times bestseller in 2009. Holiday has also been a consultant on numerous media campaigns and has written extensively about media manipulation.
He is the author of several books and has written for Forbes, Fast Company, The Huffington Post, The Columbia Journalism Review, The Guardian, Thought Catalog, Medium.com, New York Observer, The New York Times, and Texas Monthly. His books have sold over three million copies in total.
Holiday published his first book, “Trust Me, I’m Lying”, in July 2012. His second book, “Growth Hacker Marketing”, was originally published in September 2013 and demonstrates how traditional marketing efforts are no longer the most effective, and why growth hacking is cheaper and more effective in the current market. This book was named one of the top 10 marketing books of 2014 by Inc. magazine.
In 2014, Holiday was named editor-in-chief of the Business and Technology section of the New York Observer.
Holiday is especially known for his books on Stoic philosophy. His third book, “The Obstacle Is the Way”, was published in 2014 and is based on the Stoic exercise of framing obstacles as opportunities. This book has sold over a million copies and has been read by numerous professional athletes, including the New England Patriots during their Super Bowl-winning season of 2014, and was distributed in the Seattle Seahawks locker room in the following offseason.
In 2016, he published two books: “Ego Is the Enemy”, which uses various historical figures as case studies to illustrate the dangers of egotism, and “The Daily Stoic”, a daily devotional of Stoic meditations, which reached number 1 on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list.
In 2018, he published “Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue”, a book about the lawsuit between Gawker Media and wrestler Hulk Hogan, as well as Peter Thiel’s involvement in the dispute. In October 2019, he published “Stillness Is the Key”, which became Holiday’s first book to reach number 1 on the New York Times bestseller list.
In 2020, he published “Lives of the Stoics”, which he wrote with author Stephen Hanselman. The book is a collection of biographies of more than two dozen philosophers who lived according to the Stoic virtues of courage, temperance, and wisdom.
Holiday has been cited by The New York Times as one of the reasons for the growing popularity of Stoicism. He has been described as “leading the charge of Stoicism”, which has been notably popular among Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Classicist Gregory Hays, whose translation of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations became a bestseller, provided commentary on Holiday’s Stoic writing, saying it is “very much in the spirit of its ancient models” and added that “Holiday is also a great storyteller”.
Here is a list of books written by Ryan Holiday:
- Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator (2012)
- Growth Hacker Marketing: A Primer on the Future of PR, Marketing, and Advertising (2014)
- The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph (2014)
- Ego Is the Enemy (2016)
- The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living (2016)
- Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work that Lasts (2017)
- The Daily Stoic Journal: 366 Days of Writing and Reflection on the Art of Living (2017)
- Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue (2018)
- Stillness Is the Key (2019)
- Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius: Lessons on the Art of Living (2020)
- Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave (2021)
- Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control (2022)
- The Boy Who Would Be King (2022)
- The Girl Who Would Be Free (2022).
