A Stoic is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into transformation, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking.
Taleb, inspired by the ancients, reframes Stoicism not as emotional suppression, but as *conversion*. Fear becomes foresight. Pain becomes the path. It's what Marcus did when Rome's economy collapsed, what Seneca practiced after losing power. The Stoic doesn't deny hardship — they transmute it. Where others break, they bend and grow stronger. They are not made of stone, but steel tempered in adversity.
Strength is not resistance, but transformation. Use every emotion as raw material for growth.
"The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way."