In his new book, At War with Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House, H.R McMaster writes of the challenges he faced in his pressure-cooker job; and also about the necessity of leaders being familiar with the ideas of Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius.

Now I’m impressed! We read the Stoic writings. I’m in great company.

The dilemmas of the job McMaster held under the former President’s administration would have not been unfamiliar to the Stoics.

Athenodorus Cananites was a prominent Stoic who emphasized virtue, reason, self-control and navigating the challenges of power. He was an advisor to Augustus, Rome’s first emperor.

Augustus was the grand-nephew and adopted heir of Julius Caesar and one of the most influential figures in Roman history. He became Rome’s first emperor but avoided the title of king or dictator, by calling himself "Princeps” or first citizen.

The Stoic Seneca, served for eight years under Nero, known for his controversial and tyrannical reign.

Our questions are:

• “How do we direct our boss in the right direction?
• How do we deal with criticism and feedback from outsiders who don’t have the whole picture?
• How do we avoid workplace intrigue?

We can look to one of the most famous Roman Emperors, best known as a philosopher-king Marcus Aurelius. His reign is often regarded as a high point of the Roman Empire.

He’s most famous for his writings on Stoicism, with his emphasizes on reason, self-control, and virtue.

He says that the struggle for public opinion, for progress and for justice are rarely straightforward - and it’s almost never clean.

We must learn how things get done. We must learn how to navigate the messy, complicated world of power and influence.

Marcus Aurelius writes, “If the cucumber is bitter, throw it out.” “If there are brambles in the path, go around.”

He was saying we must be pragmatic and realistic. We must work within the situations we face, making the best of what’s in front of us. We must then find a way to do right and prevent evil where these things are in our control.

Most of us may never experience the intense scrutiny faced by McMaster or Marcus Aurelius or Seneca. But we could take his words to heart and focus on what matters most - getting the job done, and conducting ourselves with virtue, even if those around us don’t care!

Marcus Aurelius’ book, Meditations (visit MIT Internet Classics Archive), written in Greek during his military campaigns, is one of the most famous works of Stoic philosophy. This is a great, thoughtful read for these times!