Ryan Holiday


Ryan Holiday is an American marketer and author. He is the former director of marketing for American Apparel and a media columnist and editor-at-large for the New York Observer.

Career

Early career

Holiday began his professional career after dropping out of college at the age of 19. He briefly attended University of California, Riverside, where he studied political science and creative writing. He worked for Tucker Max, the controversial fratire author, to orchestrate a number of controversial media stunts including a boycott of Max's work as part of a movie launch. Later, Holiday worked with Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power, on Greene's 2009 New York Times bestselling book, The 50th Law. Holiday served as Director of Marketing for American Apparel and as an adviser to founder Dov Charney. He left the company in October 2014. He has been responsible for a number of media stunts, and has written extensively on the topic of media manipulation.

Writing

Holiday 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 and the New York Observer.
In July 2012, his first book Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator was released by Portfolio/Penguin. The book tries to expose flaws in current online journalism system and catalogs the author's exploitation of them. It debuted on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list. His second book Growth Hacker Marketing was originally published in September 2013 by Portfolio/Penguin and then expanded into a print edition in 2014. The book shows how traditional marketing efforts are no longer the most effective, and why growth hacking is cheaper and more effective in today's market. The book was named one of Inc. Magazine's top 10 marketing books of 2014.
In February 2014, Holiday was named editor-at-large of the Business & Technology section at the New York Observer.
Holiday's third book The Obstacle Is The Way, was published May 1, 2014, also by Portfolio/Penguin. The book is based on the Stoic exercise of framing obstacles as opportunities. The book has sold more than 230,000 copies and was read by the New England Patriots during their 2014 Super Bowl-winning season, as well as distributed through the locker room of the Seattle Seahawks in the following offseason. The Obstacle Is the Way reached #1 on the Wall Street Journal Bestseller List in 2019, five years after its initial release. Two-time NBA Champion Chris Bosh listed The Obstacle Is the Way as his favorite book and added that, when his head coach Erik Spoelstra gifted Miami Heat players copies of the book, Bosh had already read it twice. During a press conference at the Masters in 2019, four-time major champion golfer Rory McIlroy said he read The Obstacle Is the Way as well as Holiday's following book, Ego Is the Enemy, leading up to the tournament.
In 2016, he published two books. The first, Ego Is the Enemy, uses various historical figures as case studies to illustrate the perils of egotism. The second, The Daily Stoic, is a daily devotional of Stoic meditations. Both books went on to become best sellers with Daily Stoic reaching #3 overall on the bestseller list.
In 2018 he published Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue.
It is about the lawsuit between Gawker Media and wrestler Hulk Hogan, as well as Peter Thiel's involvement in the dispute.
It was favorably reviewed by William D. Cohan of the New York Times, who called the book, "one helluva page-turner."
His latest book, Stillness Is the Key, was published in October 2019.

Stoicism

Holiday, through his books, articles and lectures, has been credited by the New York Times with the increasing popularity of stoicism. He was also described as "leading the charge for stoicism," which has been noted for gaining traction among Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.