Plato’s Lemonade Stand
Stirring Change into Something Great
Tom Morris has a joint Ph.D. from Yale in Religious Studies and Philosophy and is one of the most popular teachers in Notre Dame’s history. He’s one of my favorite teachers. In this book, he distills decades of wisdom into the ultimate philosophical lemonade-making recipe. Big Ideas we explore include lemon alchemy (Antifragility for the win!), the Big 3 + 1 (Socrates + Aristotle + Ockham --> Self-knowledge + Ideals + Courage + Simplicity), Plato’s Ideals (and yours), “I’m Getting Nervous!” (--> “I’m getting ready!”), and The Alchemy of Life (fuel for the second mountain).
Big Ideas
- Antifragile Lemon AlchemyAntifragile style.
- Self-knowledge + Ideals + Courage + SimplicitySocrates + Plato + Aristotle + Ockham --> Self-knowledge + Ideals + Courage + Simplicity.
- Plato’s IdealsAnd yours.
- “I’m getting nervous” —> “I’m getting ready!”--> “I’m getting ready!”
- The alchemy of lifeFuel for the second mountain.
“This book will offer a practical philosophy for how to flex and innovate your way forward in the face of life’s irritations, shocks, defeats, disappointments, heartaches, and failures. The good news is that we’ve long had some profound advice on how to deal with the vast range of difficulties we face. It’s as succinct as it is vivid and memorable:
When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.
… In the face of a real tragedy, you may think it to be ridiculously trite, or even glib. But it’s not at all. Beneath the simple surface image of the advice, there are great depths to be explored and powerful insights to be used. It actually captures a profound philosophy of life.
And yet there’s a basic problem with the popular adage. Nearly everyone says it, but no one says how. Nobody tells us exactly, or even remotely, how to do what’s so vividly recommended. This book will solve that problem, providing guidance from some of the wisest people who have ever lived on the best ways to deal with the most difficult challenges that enter our lives, as well as the little everyday obstacles that cross our path. It’s about adversity in all its forms and how we can best respond to it wisely and well. It’s a personal guide for all of us, but it’s also a surprisingly powerful look at what leaders need to learn to do well and help their associates and partners accomplish on a regular basis.”
~ Tom V. Morris from Plato’s Lemonade Stand
This is our 5th Note on one of Tom Morris’s books.
As I’ve mentioned in the other Notes, Tom has a joint Ph.D. from Yale in Religious Studies and Philosophy and is one of the most popular teachers in Notre Dame's history. He’s one of my absolute (!) favorite teachers.
Side note: He’s also one of John Mackey’s favorite authors. I remembered that fact when reading this book as John (Founder/CEO of Whole Foods) is one of the antifragile lemonade-making exemplars Tom features. When I re-connected John and Tom years ago, John told me that he’d read EVERY single one of Tom’s books. So, yah. There’s that.
But what I love about Tom the most is his incredible, effervescent enthusiasm. Every time we’ve connected, I’ve been blown away by the depth of his wisdom and the joy with which he expresses it. It’s palpable.
So… When I saw that he had recently published this book, I immediately got it. It’s awesome—basically a distillation of a lifetime of practical philosophical wisdom all focused like a laser beam on dealing with life’s inevitable challenges. It’s powerful wisdom for ANY era. And, it’s ESPECIALLY powerful as I write this during the COVID-19 crisis. (Get a copy of the book here.)
It’s packed with wisdom and I’m excited to share some of my favorite Big Ideas so let’s jump straight in and squeeze some lemons!
Download MP3
Download PDFWhat is philosophy? Doesn’t it mean preparing to meet whatever will come our way?
Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.
Get the BookAntifragile Lemon Alchemy
“In recent years, a chorus of voices has been reminding us that the best of our achievements tend to happen on the far side of adversity, that anything worth doing is going to be harder than we might imagine, and that we need certain inner resources in order to keep on track amid the challenges we’ll inevitably face on any worthy path. Some astute thinkers have stressed the importance of inner resilience, an ability to bounce back whenever we’re knocked down. Others, like the insightful psychologist Angela Duckworth, have identified the attribute of grit, or a dogged mental determination, as a common characteristic of successful people in our world of struggle. I agree that both resilience and grit are indeed vital characteristics needed for any challenging success in our time, as they have been in every other era. But the old adage about lemonades is particularly interesting because it hints at something more.
We’re not told that when life hands us lemons, we should just bounce back emotionally and regain our poise, or that we should perhaps instead grit our teeth and persist in soldiering on despite the sour fruit. It makes a rather radical suggestion that we should do something that involves a transformation, and one that results in much more than the simply tolerable. It doesn’t just help us put pain into the past. It urges us on to use our difficulty to create an outcome that’s even delightful. Resilience and grit mean doing something because of adversity and even despite of it. But there is an alchemy beyond these two qualities that involves doing something immensely creative with the challenge. And this may be where most of our innovation in life happens, in the midst of daunting challenge and difficult change. When life hands us lemons, we’re to make cool, refreshing lemonade. We have here a simple and vivid metaphor of metamorphosis for what I’ve come to think of as a secret of life. It touches on something of great wisdom and power.”
Resilience. Grit. Bouncing back when we get knocked down. Those are obviously wonderful qualities. Yet… They’re not quite enough.
We need a word for the OPPOSITE of fragile.
Note: It’s *not* resilient.
It’s ANTIFRAGILE.
As we’ve discussed countless times (I promise to keep coming back to this idea as it’s SO IMPORTANT), when we’re fragile, we break. When we’re resilient, we can sustain more challenges (before breaking then bouncing back).
BUT…
What if we could actually GET STRONGER every time life kicks us around?
We’d be ANTIfragile.
When life gives us lemons, we’d make lemonade.
<- THAT’s the ultimate super-power.
P.S. I love the way Ward Farnsworth captures parallel wisdom in The Practicing Stoic. He tells us: “Stoics avoid adversity in the ways that anyone of sense would. But sometimes it comes regardless, and then the Stoic goal is to see the adversity rightly and not let one’s peace of mind be destroyed by its arrival. Indeed, the aim of the Stoic is something more: to accept reversal without shock and to make it grist for the creation of greater things. Nobody wants hardship in any particular case, but it is a necessary element in the formation of worthy people and worthy achievements that, in the long run, we do want. Stoics seek the value in whatever happens.“
Ward quotes Epictetus who tells us: “This is Hermes’ magic wand: touch it to anything you like, they say, and the wand will turn it to gold. Not so; bring anything you like, rather, and I’ll make it something good. Bring disease, bring death, bring poverty, bring insults, bring punishment for high crimes—all these things will be made beneficial by Hermes’ magic wand.“
<- Can’t you just see Epictetus waving Hermes’s wand to turn lemons into lemonade? I can. :)
Let’s follow his lead! Got any lemons? Gather them up and bring them to the philosophical kitchen. It’s time to make some lemonade!
All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.
All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art.
To the timid and hesitating, everything is impossible because it seems so.
Self-knowledge + Ideals + Courage + Simplicity
“Let’s briefly review this beginning philosophical advice, which can be a bit like the array of kitchen tools we need for turning life’s lemons into lemonade. To help us prosper in a turbulent world, Socrates recommended a strong habit of self-examination and the resulting self-knowledge that only this can supply. Plato pointed out the importance of unchanging principles and eternal values as our ultimate guides when we deal with change and challenge. Aristotle advised us to cultivate virtues like courage that will help us move forward to the future we desire. And Ockham suggested we simplify insightfully in order to handle complexity well. Armed with these four things—a keen habit of self-examination, some stable guiding ideals, a cluster of personal virtues centered on courage, and a determined preference for simplicity—we can position ourselves to be true masters of challenging change, alchemists of adversity, and expert maker’s of life’s finest lemonade.”
That’s from the Introduction in which Tom introduces us to four key insights for lemonade making mastery.
We have:
The Wisdom of Socrates and Insight Number One: Self-Knowledge
Plato’s Principles and Insight Two: Ideals
Aristotle’s Virtues and Insight Three: Courage
Ockham and Insight Four: A Nose for the Simple Essence
We’ll talk more about Plato’s Ideals in depth in a moment.
For now, let’s remember Socrates’ proclamation: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” And, let’s not forget: “However difficult it might be to engage in the comprehensive process of critical self-examination that Socrates recommended, the alternative ends up being worse, as you can see on nearly any Reality TV show, or in the chaotic scrum of the really real.“
Aristotle “saw that only a courageous person could experience what all of us most deeply seek, some form of genuine success, authentic fulfillment, and lasting happiness. A courageous, fully virtuous person is uniquely positioned to be resiliently successful in life and, as a result, in the most complete possible sense, happy.“
William of Ockham “left us a legacy that prominently features one great idea. Mathematicians, scientists, and other philosophers, as well as theorists in many fields of study have found inspiration and guidance in his insight that a preference for hard-earned simplicity is a useful tool for understanding almost anything in life. In any situation, however complicated, there is a simple essence. If we can identify and master that simple core, we can handle the entire situation better, with all its potential complexity.“
Here’s to the key ingredients of lemonade making:
Self-knowledge + Ideals + Courage + Simplicity.
The ability to simplify means eliminating the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.
Plato’s Ideals
“A champion wrestler as well as a great thinker, Plato took his stand on unchanging values as the ultimate leverage we have for grappling with this unpredictable world. He was convinced that we can attain true success in life only if we first understand the things that never change and use them well as our reference points for moving forward productively through life’s uncertainties.
Centuries later, Jesus of Nazareth talked about building the structure of your life on a solid foundation of unyielding rock rather than on shifting sands that can provide no sure support. Many more centuries farther on in time, the great Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard, often known as the father of existentialism, said something parallel in his influential collection of essays known as the Edifying Discourses:
When the sailor is out on the sea and everything is changing around him, as the waves are continually being born and dying, he does not stare into the depths of these, since they vary. He looks up at the stars. And why? Because they are faithful—as they stand now, they stood for the patriarchs, and will stand for coming generations. By what means then does he conquer changing conditions? Through the eternal: By means of the eternal, one can conquer the future, because the eternal is the foundation of the future.
Our highest ideals and deepest values that connect with the eternal can shed light on the often murky and confusing situations we face at work and in our personal lives. A former U.S. President, Jimmy Carter, once showed himself to be, at least in this regard, a true Platonist and Kierkegaardian. In his inaugural address to the nation, he quoted one of his high school teachers who had taught him that, ‘In changing times, we must take our stand on unchanging principles.’ This powerful and ancient perspective on change endures from Plato to the present. The philosopher had wisdom that still carries down to us like a gentle breeze through the centuries.“
Plato.
He’s Socrates’ student and Aristotle’s teacher. And, of course, he’s also the namesake of our book. (Note: Although Plato exemplifies the philosophy behind the book, Tom points out that he didn’t actually make any lemonade as lemonade wasn’t invented until medieval Egypt.)
So…
Plato had his unchanging values including the ideals of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. Jesus had his wise builder who constructed his house on the rock of enduring truths. Kierkegaard’s sailor had the stars. Carter tells us that “In changing times, we must take our stand on unchanging principles.”
All of which begs the question: On what unchanging principles are YOU building your life?
For me? I’m committed to building my life on virtue. I know the game I’m playing and I’m committed to playing it well—living with Wisdom + Self-Mastery + Courage + Love + Hope + Gratitude + Curiosity + Zest.
TODAY.
P.S. Here’s Jesus’ Parable of the Wise and the Foolish Builders (also known as the House on the Rock) from Matthew 7:24-27:
“24 Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; 25 and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; 27 and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it.”
It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.
Philosophy’s work is finding the shortest path between two points.
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.
“I’m getting nervous” —> “I’m getting ready!”
“In my early years of teaching, whenever I felt my heart rate going up before class, I’d think to myself, ‘I’m getting nervous.’ I eventually learned to reframe those sensations very differently. Now when I feel the same thing, I smile and say to myself, ‘I’m getting ready.’ I then immediately imagine the positive consequences this good energy will have. The resulting state of mind is an unusual and powerful combination of preparation, eagerness, and inner calm that gives top performers in any field some of their distinctive edge. Positive imagination and positive inner talk can turn your emotional state around and prepare you well for even the most daunting challenges.”
I love that distinction.
“I’m getting nervous!” —> “I’m getting ready!”
<- THAT’s some powerful alchemy. Same neutral energy. Different outcomes.
Of course, this wisdom reminds me of the “I’m excited!” vs “I need to calm down” research we’ve talked about many times.
Recall: Researchers can bring people into a lab and stress them out by having them give a speech in front of a panel of judges. One group is told to try to calm themselves down by saying “I am calm” to themselves while the OTHER group is encouraged to embrace their anxiety by saying, “I am excited.”
As Kelly McGonigal puts it inThe Upside of Stress, “People who watched the speeches rated the excited speakers as more persuasive, confident, and competent than the participants who had tried to calm down. With one change in mindset, they had transformed their anxiety into energy that helped them perform under pressure.
Although most people believe that the best strategy under pressure is to relax, this chapter will reveal when and why the opposite is true. Whether it’s a student facing the most important exam of her life or a professional athlete facing the toughest competition of his career, welcoming stress can boost confidence and improve performance. We’ll look at how embracing your anxiety can help you rise to a challenge, and even transform a typical fear response into the biology of courage.“
And, Jon Eliot and his wisdom comes to mind as well. As he tells us in Overachievement: “I have discovered that I cannot enhance anybody’s performance without getting them not only to live with the butterflies that come with high-pressure jobs, but to embrace that kind of physical response, enjoy it, get into it. That’s the real first ticket to being a performer who thinks exceptionally.“
What do YOU say to yourself when you feel the butterflies swarming?
How about: “I’m excited!” and… “I’m getting ready to rock!!”
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.
After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
The alchemy of life
“I believe we’re here to change the world, in however small or extensive a way. But we’re also here to be changed and made into the best of what we’re capable of being. The alchemy of life is most powerful within us and for us. We’re to be transformed. As the traveling rabbi Jesus revealed to his visitor Nicodemus, all of our physical and emotional life is meant to contribute to a metamorphosis that can lead to a second and spiritual rebirth as what we’re meant to be. So, this life is really all about what can be made of us, which is, hopefully, the best spiritual lemonade of all. Cheers.”
Those are the final words of the book.
As you know if you’ve been following along, I often like to end our Notes with the very final words of the book. Why? Well, those final words often best capture the author’s ultimate intention of the book. And, that’s definitely the case with this one.
Those lemons we’re inevitably given in life? As Tom says shortly before that passage, “We are the lemons.” (Hah.) Ultimately, WE are the very lemons that need to be “cut and squeezed and stirred by life and made into something great.”
When I think about our metamorphosis that can lead to a “second and spiritual rebirth” I think of David Brooks’ Second Mountain and Richard Rohr’s Falling Upward.
As it turns out, Father Richard’s book is basically a perfect spiritual lemonade-making recipe. Here’s how he puts it: “The soul has many secrets. They are only revealed to those who want them, and are never completely forced upon us. One of the best-kept secrets, and yet one hidden in plain sight, is that the way up is the way down. Or, if you prefer, the way down is the way up. This pattern is obvious in all of nature, from the very change of the seasons and substances on this earth, to the six hundred million tons of hydrogen the sun burns every day to light and warm our earth, and even to the metabolic laws of dieting or fasting. The down-up pattern is constant, too, in mythology, in stories like that of Persephone, who must descend into the underworld and marry Hades for spring to be reborn.
In legends and literature, sacrifice of something to achieve something else is almost the only pattern. Dr. Faust has to sell his soul to the devil to achieve power and knowledge; Sleeping Beauty must sleep for a hundred years before she can receive the prince’s kiss. In Scripture, we see that the wrestling and wounding of Jacob are necessary for Jacob to become Israel (Genesis 32:26-32), and the death and resurrection of Jesus are necessary to create Christianity. The loss and renewal pattern is so constant and ubiquitous that it should hardly be called a secret at all.”
Here’s to the alchemy of life—cutting and squeezing and stirring ourselves into some tasty lemonade we can bring to the world TODAY.
The greater part of progress is the desire to progress.
In short, everything that the human spirit undertakes or suffers will lead to happiness when it’s guided by wisdom, but to the opposite, when guided by folly.
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