I was coordinating one of the biggest events at my university — and everything was going wrong. No one wanted to lead the most important team. A company threatened to cancel a crucial deal. One mistake pushed us over budget. I couldn’t sleep, I doubted myself, and every day felt like a disaster waiting to happen. I wasn’t prepared for this kind of responsibility — until I discovered Stoicism.
Chaos Begins
But few months earlier everything looked exciting. I had just been asked to be a main coordinator of one of the biggest event at the university — over 70 organizers, 4,000 students attending, and more than 20 companies involved. It was my first time being in leadership role. I felt proud, motivated, and eager to take this challenge. I had no idea how quickly things could fall apart.
I realized how much unprepared I was for this role. The first problems came faster than I expected. I was asked to coordinate the event very late, when many things should have already been done. We still didn’t have leaders for the team responsible for collaborating with companies — even though sponsorship offers should have beed sent a month earlier. There was no full plan for the event, so we had to make hundreds of decisions at once. We felt huge pressure. Every day brought a new problem, and I started to feel completely overwhelmed. I couldn’t sleep, and I began to wonder if I had made a mistake accepting this role.
Looking for help
At one point, I felt completely lost. Every day brought a new crisis, I wasn’t sleeping, and no matter how hard I tried, things kept falling apart. I needed help — not in organizing tasks, but in controlling my mind.
So I started searching for advice from people who went through much bigger challenges — entrepreneurs. To my surprise, many of them mentioned the same thing — Stoicism. I had heard this word at school but I never paid attention to it until now.
The mindset shift
I started reading Seneca’s letters since I heard that it has a lot of very useful life advices. I realized that most of my stress didn’t come from real problems but from the fears in my head. Another idea which changed my life was: focus only on what you can control. I started to understand that I couldn’t control sponsors, other people’s decisions, or unexpected problems — but I could control my actions, efforts, and my mindset.
I didn’t change overnight but I slowly started to apply what I had learned. Each time something went wrong — a company refused to help us or a team member failed to deliver — I stopped and asked myself: “Can I control this?” If the answer was yes, I took action. If the answer was no, I let it go.
Tested in Reality
This new mindset didn’t solve all the problems around me, but it changed the way I faced them. I was still tired, and we still had issues with sponsors, deadlines, and organization — but I wasn’t falling apart inside anymore. I focused on solutions. That’s when I realized that Stoicism was really working. From that moment, I tried to use Stoicism every day while coordinating the event. Each morning I reminded myself of what I could control: my effort, my decisions, and how I spoke to others.
Two weeks before the event, one of team members ordered catalogs that cost far more than we had planned in our budget. I found out when it was already to late to change or cancel the order. I couldn’t reverse the mistake, so I did the only thing still in my control: adjusted the budget and searched for ways to save money in other areas. Thanks to Stoicism, instead of panicking or blaming others, I stayed calm and focused on what I could do next.
Result
The event day finally came. And even though not everything went perfectly, everything worked. The teams did their jobs, companies were satisfied, and students enjoyed the event. When it was over, I felt something I hadn’t felt in months — calm pride instead of exhaustion and regret. A few months later, our event was awarded as the best student council project in the category “Cooperation with Business.”
That experience changed me more than I expected. I didn’t just finish the event — I became a different person while doing it. I take responsibility willingly. I focuse only on what depends on me. Thanks to Stoicism, I became more resilient, more patient, and more confident in my decisions. And for the first time in my life, I felt like I could handle whatever came next.
Your Turn
You don’t need to organize a huge event or lead a team to start practicing Stoicism. You just need a moment of honesty with yourself and the willingness to change how you react to life. Start small: write down what you can and cannot control today. Read just one page of Seneca or Marcus Aurelius. When something goes wrong, don’t ask “Why me?” — ask, “What can I do now?” These simple practices can completely change the way you handle stress, just like they did for me.
The App I Build
Stoicism helped me so much that I didn’t want it to stay only in my head. I wanted other people — especially those who are stressed, overwhelmed, or lost like I was — to have simple access to this wisdom. That’s why I decided to build a mobile app. I collected Stoic lessons from Seneca, rewrote them into simple language, added summaries, practical exercises, daily reminders, and tools to help people apply Stoicism in real situations. I created it for my personal need, and now I want to share it with others who might need it too.
Download the app:
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wiserlife.app
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