The title of the book is drawn from a quote from Meditations, a series of personal writings by Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius: “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”[1] Holiday draws from Meditations, Aurelius, and the philosophy of stoicism to expand the idea that how we respond to obstacles is what defines us.[5] Holiday argues that obstacles don't inhibit success, they create success and that readers should see "through the negative, past its underside, and into its corollary: the positive."[6][7]