Welcome to The Stoic Ledger, a daily money meditation from one of the Stoic sages.

92/365: Diogenes on overconfidence

Time is a great teacher because experience trickles across the span of time.

Diogenes shares Zeno’s wisdom about overconfidence and pride in the young: it’s unbecoming, unattractive, and undesirable.

Early success, or a quick wit can pull you into trouble. It’s not a problem with the success, but the air that comes from it, the air that inflates our egos, the apparent earned prestige.

It often takes a lesson in humility from someone with more wisdom to bring these airs down, to pop our airy ego balloons.

Don’t let financial success entitle you a lofty ego.