The Stoic Capitalist: Advice for the Exceptionally Ambitious

by Robert Rosenkranz

Bloomsbury presents The Stoic Capitalist by Robert Rosenkranz, read by Ian Porter.

The Stoic ideal of a well-lived life has been around since 300BC, but what can we learn from it 2,300 years later?

In The Stoic Capitalist, Robert Rosenkranz shows how its teachings can lead to a life of accomplishment, fulfillment, and impact. Stoic principles are applied not just to help you cope but to achieve your most ambitious goals. He offers an astute combination of philosophical, psychological, and business observations, along with practical advice spanning topics as diverse as finance, investments, negotiation, hiring, time management, art collecting, philanthropy, and longevity. He explains how ancient philosophy and its psychological insights can be used to create extraordinary outcomes in your personal and professional life.

Each of the short chapters offers ideas you can use to thrive. Along the way, you meet a lively global cast of RAND nuclear strategists, pioneering artists, scientist-entrepreneurs racing to extend the human lifespan, and iconic figures in the Wall Street boom years. The book offers an insider’s perspective on the creation of such major developments as private equity, hedge funds, and junk bonds.

Rosenkranz writes as he speaks, with the engaging voice of a Renaissance man who is insatiably curious, eager to learn, open to all viewpoints, but embracing none without critical thought. Reading this book may help you realize your childhood dreams.

Genres: Business, Philosophy, Self Help, Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

Published May 6, 2025

Reviews

[Aditya Dabas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, actually, all of modern stoicism is capitalist stoicism with a perverted definition of morality, narcissistic selfishness mistaken for dutiful action.
The modern so called stoic couldn’t tell which way he is headed in life without some capitalistic check-post.

[Ferhat Elmas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good signal overall (i.e. what to read and when, what the critical skills are to develop early on, how to raise a kid, comparison of industries in terms of efficiency, raising capital and tax, etc., what to look for friends, hiring, partners, etc., how to create more time; with not a bad list of references to look for more depth) but the second part goes into bragging and gives reasoning for his choices; as a result it's not as strong as the beginning. Luckily, he knows where to stop before dragging it worse.

[Rob Sedgwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Stoic Capitalist is about Robert Rosenkranz's business career and how he applied stoic principles to become successful. It also has a smattering of other activities he has engaged in - art, photography, politics and philanthropy.

Although it's nominally about stoicism, the book primarily focuses on Rosenkranz's career. You have to read between the lines to get to the rationale, although he does ultimately flesh it out towards the conclusion. His strategy hardly followed a conventional footing - while still a young man, intending to decide what to do with his own life, he read dozens of biographies of the great and analysed how recent millionaires had made their fortune. It feels like he retrospectively fitted a label to what he had been doing all along. In reality, he comes across as a very methodical person, a deep thinker, with a good business brain.

His rationale call it stoicism/cbt/whatever, is to think through difficulties and accept the world as you find it, rather than rail against it. Anger is to be avoided. He's a traditional Republican, but doesn't have a home in either of the two main US parties today, which are both too confrontational.

A lot of his book is about leveraged buyouts which is very specific to the time and place he made his fortune. Maybe if you are young and "exceptionally ambitious", this is the book for you. But really you could condense everything down to about 10 pages and not need the specifics of Rosenkranz's business dealings.

[Adrina Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book mixes Rosenkranz's own personal and professional biography with stoic principles, and how doing so helped him live a very successful and fulfilling (at least he seems fulfilled) life. Rosenkranz's a lot of his stories and examples areset in the world of finance and investment, where he made a career for himself for many years. I wasn't expecting this book to be so focused on finance and using the investment world as Rosenkranz's backdrop, but I welcomed it, as I feel he had some good general advice regarding that world as well.
Rosenkranz essentially pushes the ideas of using intellect, patience, morality, and rational decision-making as the blueprints for the ambitious. While I can't exactly say if these principles follow a Stoic philosophy, I did find them insightful.
Overall though, I feel the book really was more a platform for Rosenkranz to showcase the highlights from his career. Not hating on him for this, but a fair warning because that's what 80% of the book is about. There are still things to be learned from it though, if you listen carefully!

[Marianne D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Billionaire who reads Biographies as a poor child, charts his life out of poverty then writes his own. An advice guide of sorts for his heirs. Rags to Richer than Rich. Impressive climb & interesting read from a Business perspective, although would have enjoyed more Leadership, Top-Down examples. Details his Yale & Harvard Law education. Precisely nails how lawyers operate. Divergence from family of origin Communist values propells into Billionaire status. References to CBT therapy & reliance on Stoic philosophy but unclear if these philosophies carry through to his personal life… Agree with other reviews regarding interesting first half but the last half drags in places. Overall recommend because the climb & view from the top held my attention.

[Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful as memoir, left me wanting more as Stoic guidance. I became aware of Rosenkranz’s work through Ryan Holiday, so maybe my expectations, taken together with the title of the book were too high on the Stoic guidance and application I sought. Still, learning more about someone whose life, choices, and impacts have been large and important was worth the bait and switch. And he’s a good writer on top of being a great investor, significant art collector, and impactful philanthropist. If you’re on a Stoic path and you’re a capitalist, add this to your list, and if you’re moved by the stories of great men and women, this will scratch that itch as well.

[Manosai · Rating 2 out of 5]

Appreciate the time he took to write down his lessons learned in the form of advice. And he also has genuine insights around what I overall believe is a good mindset to approach our lives with.

But I find his writing to be self-indulgent and scattered across chapters. Towards the end, he starts to come across as proud in a way that doesn’t feel self-aware and it irritated me more than inspired me to learn from his successes.

I would say skip this book.

[Justin Mannolini · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you’re looking for a treatise about how to apply Stoic principles to business, you will be disappointed. This is really just a biography by a slightly interesting businessman who discovered Stoicism relatively late in life (nothing wrong with that) and has tried to retrofit the philosophy to create a “virtue framework” to give meaning to what was essentially his meaningless pursuit of material wealth. There IS something slightly wrong with that: some chapters positively ooze narcissism.

[Ricardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining snippets of the author life where he reflects on how stoic philosophy influenced his behavior knowingly or not. Many stories could be used for expanded self discovery.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good merge of Stoic philosophy and modern ambition.

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Self indulgent narcissism. Pure and simple.