What Seneca taught about dealing with failure

In the next paragraphs, I am going to summarise the advice from #seneca about dealing with failure. He devoted a couple of decades to compiling his advice, not only from his personal experience, but also from other notable persons in the early Roman Empire. Seneca called for keeping adequate margins of error. I mean having a backup plan or sufficient resources to keep us above water even if the worst possible risks materialise. There is no need to become a paranoiac. It’s enough if we make a fair #assessment of the risks, and cover the most likely and lethal. History shows us, for instance, how the Roman general Pompey (106-48 BC) had painted himself into a corner. After burning all the bridges, he bet his future on one card at the Battle of Pharsalus. When Pompey lost the battle, he had nowhere safe to go, and was pushed into suicide shortly after. He would have fared better if he had devised a plan B, or if he had covered his risks in some way, avoiding total disaster. I miss in Seneca consistent explanations about how to keep reasonable margins of error in life. He should have analysed examples such as Pompey, showing that they had made a mistake. I also consider that #socrates (470-399 BC) had made the same mistake. Pompey had been foolish to bet his life on one card, but if we examine Socrates’ trial, we find exactly the same pattern. It didn’t make any sense for Socrates to let himself be spuriously accused and prosecuted. Socrates should have left #athens at an earlier stage. As soon as he learned that his enemies were plotting to accuse him, he should have left Athens and never returned again. There was no need for Socrates to play a game in which he could only lose, a game in which he had no backup plan and no resources for an #emergency exit. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/what-seneca-taught-about-dealing-with-failure/