Ryan Holiday

Career

Holiday began his professional career after dropping out of college at the age of 19. Ryan briefly attended University of California, Riverside, where he studied political science and creative writing. He worked for Tucker Max, the controversial fratire author. Holiday worked with Tucker Max to orchestrate a media craze by trying to get Planned Parenthood to name a clinic after him, and previously created 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. Today, he still advises or works with a variety of bestselling authors including Max, Greene, Timothy Ferriss, Tony Robbins, and Food Babe's Vani Hari. 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 controversies, and written extensively on the topic of media manipulation.

In February 2014, Holiday was named editor-at-large of the Business & Technology section at the New York Observer.

Holiday has written for Forbes, Fast Company, The Huffington Post, The Columbia Journalism Review, The Guardian, Thought Catalog, Medium.com and the New York Observer, where he is the media columnist.

In December 2013, Holiday was reported to be writing a book with Cash Money Records founders Bryan "Birdman" Williams and Ronald "Slim" Williams. Addressing the book on The Breakfast Club in 2017, Holiday said the project had stalled.

Books

In July 2012, Holiday's first book Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator was released by Portfolio/Penguin. The book purports 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. Holiday's 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 attempts to show how traditional marketing efforts (billboards, press releases) are no longer the most effective, and why growth hacking is cheaper and more effective in today's market. The book uses companies such as Facebook, Airbnb, Dropbox, and Uber as examples and was named one of Inc. Magazine's top 10 marketing books of 2014. 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 reportedly read by the New England Patriots during their 2014 Super Bowl Victory over the Seattle Seahawks as well as distributed through the locker room of the Seahawks in the following offseason by the team's front office.

In 2016, Holiday published two books. The first, titled 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.

Holiday's books have been widely read among athletes, coaches, and professional sports executives, including Mike Condon of the Ottawa Senators, Randall Cobb of the Green Bay Packers, John Schneider and Pete Carroll of the Seattle Seahawks, among others. David West of the Golden State Warriors read Ego Is the Enemy during the team's 2017 playoff run.

In June of 2017 Portfolio announced Holiday was writing a book about the lawsuit between Gawker Media and wrestler Hulk Hogan, as well as Peter Thiel's involvement in the dispute. It is scheduled for release in the winter of 2017.

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.