Everything I Learned From Iron Maiden About Life

Ryan Holiday
12 min readOct 4, 2024

What does Iron Maiden have to do with Stoic philosophy?

Nothing really, but this is my newsletter and it’s what I want to talk about.

I’ve been an Iron Maiden fan since I was a kid (more about how I found them below). I’ve seen them live in Sacramento, Los Angeles, Austin and San Antonio (2x). If you’ve ever seen me on a podcast or in a Daily Stoic video, if you’ve come to one of my talks or bumped into me in person…there’s a very good chance you saw me in an Iron Maiden t-shirt. I even wrote about them in my book Perennial Seller.

But mostly, what inspired this piece is that I am taking my 8-year-old to see them later this month…exactly twenty years after I went to my first Iron Maiden concert.

So what have I learned in two decades of an unhealthy fandom of a British heavy metal band?

A lot.

Let me tell you.

Know what business you’re in. There is a story about the manager of Iron Maiden, Rod Smallwood, who has worked with the band since 1979. He is at a dinner honoring the group. A young agent comes up to him and says how much he admires his…

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Ryan Holiday

Bestselling author of ‘Conspiracy,’ ‘Ego is the Enemy’ & ‘The Obstacle Is The Way’ http://amzn.to/24qKRWR