Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favours the Brave

If you've read Robert Greene's books, Holiday's 'Courage is Calling' follows a similar style - concepts and philosophies of the human experience are laid out, using historical figures as examples and we're told how we can apply this knowledge to our modern lives.I do like books like this. I find them fascinating. Your generic philosophy / well-being books can be quite vague and cliché. History books have their use. But the increasing wealth of literature attempting to splice the two, tickles my pickle.And so Holiday should be congratulated on this undertaking. Using the principles of stoicism to motivate the modern reader into reaching their potential is a just and captivating pursuit.The reason why I rated it three stars are as follows:- Though there is an apparent close relationship between Greene and Holiday, Courage is Calling seems to contradict 'Greeneism' in many ways. My take from much of Greene's work is that the world is harsh and competitive and you need to use subtlety and poise to navigate through life. Issues are nuanced, people are complex, so understanding people and using restraint in our interactions is key.Holiday in this book however [this is again my take] seems to champion a rather reckless and swashbuckling kamikaze approach. 'Just send that angry email', 'just quit your job', 'just move places'. It's all very emotional and drastic.I tend to adhere to Greene's way of looking at this, and so Holiday's proclamations come across as a naive and overly bolshy without regard to repercussions.How realistic is it to expect a working class 21 year old to just quit their job because they dislike their boss? In an age of intense competition for jobs, rising living costs, the ongoing pandemic. Of course Holiday would respond to this saying that courage is needed to make these big decisions, they can work out - but it just seems a bit too Hollywood happy ending, idealistic for my tastes. I tend to favour Greene's pragmatism. But that's just me.I just disagree with this idea that you should make yourself a matyr to make some kind of vague wider point; and I can't help but feel this take is derived from Holiday's own angst regarding an experience he had at American Apparel.- Holiday also lost me slightly when he throws in barbed comments about people he disagrees with on issues such as the COVID vaccine, Trump, voting left or right etc. I think these issues, whichever side you align with, are very charged and trigger emotional responses in us all. By declaring one side right and one side wrong, Holiday loses half the readership. It again seems to be naive from someone acting as an authority on human interaction.I fundamentally believe that there are certain subjects you're best off tackling in a diplomatic way or perhaps avoiding altogether, so the fact that Holiday seems to either ignore this understanding of human psychology or not care, then sullies my trust in him to advise me on how to interact with society.It is perhaps a feature from North America where this culture war is particularly toxic and is seeping into many other parts of the West now. This 'goodies v baddies', 2d cartoonish view of both sides of a political issue. It destroys nuance, and creates a very dim 'right v wrong' narrative.Linked to this is Holiday's attempts in the book to suggest some courage is bad, while other courage is good, and the determining factor of 'good or bad' seems to be whether the agents involved are people he politically aligns with., or those who are opposed. WW2 Japan 'bad', Abraham Lincoln 'good'. In reality no side is wholly good or bad, every cause is nuanced. Good and bad dwell on both sides of every debate.Holiday also mentions that you have a duty to act in advancing 'the truth' but again 'what is the truth?' everybody will have different perceptions, different opinions.It may be that the above is just a consequence of the author and I having different world views; and Holiday isn't to blame for seeing things differently to myself.I can only praise the undertaking, i just found I disagreed with Holiday on much. You should give it a read and make your own mind up. It is very readable, the chapters are short and choppy and the tone is informal so you can pick it up and read significant amounts at ease.

A lot of people like the style of these books, with short chapters and questions intended to bring about self-reflection. But I don’t think that’s for me any more. I found it quite difficult to establish what ground had been covered, because the short chapters felt shallow to me, and the broken paragraphs were irritating and frustrating to read.But that’s just me, I’m probably in a minority. People seem to like these books more than ever, and don’t seem to mind the author’s attempts at political messaging. If you’ve liked the author’s books in the past, you’re probably going to like this one too.

I wasn't gonna buy it, i regret buying it. Ryan has really lost his way over the past few years.Firstly this book is very repetitive in the points it makes, each section could have been a blog post and got the message across no need to drag out a whole book.Secondly he makes sly digs at people who don't agree with his politics in this bookAnd following on from that last point he has also been dodging people who have opposing views from his that are trying to get him to go on their podcast hes not a very courageous man.Its a shame he used to be my favourite author

Currently reading this book and I’m picking up some storylines and insights. Having authored a semi-scientific book on this subject myself, this book provides the philosophical angle I didn’t have or know about as at when I wrote my book if you know what I mean 😃😃😃😃😃

also some of the stories can get quite boring e.g. Nightingale’s