Meta Description

Scott Smith reflects on finishing his degree after decades of delay and how Stoic leadership helps us return to meaningful goals without tying them to our worth.

🎙️ Episode Summary

Something can matter to you for years while necessary responsibilities take priority. In this episode, Scott Smith explores a Stoic distinction that matters for founders and executives: pursuing a meaningful goal without making achievement the measure of your worth.

In April 2025, Scott finally completed his bachelor’s degree at BYU. He had started college decades earlier, but providing for his family repeatedly took precedence. Finishing remained important throughout those years.

Scott shares how his wife Robin encouraged him to give that commitment dedicated time and focus, how he reconsidered his expectations about learning everything in every class, and what it felt like to cross the graduation stage with family cheering.

Drawing on Epictetus’s teaching about external things and how we use them, Scott reflects on why a degree could be deeply worthwhile without defining who he was.

Your assignment: identify a commitment you have deferred, consider whether it still matters, and decide what you can do now to move it forward.

🧠 What You’ll Learn Today

• Why a meaningful goal can remain important while family responsibilities take priority.
• How dedicated time and focus helped Scott finish a decades-long commitment.
• How expecting to absorb everything can slow your progress.
• How Epictetus’s distinction between external things and their use applies to achievement.
• How to revisit a deferred commitment without making it a judgment on your worth.

🔍 Tags

Stoicism, Stoic Leadership, Epictetus, Personal Commitments, Lifelong Learning, Leadership Discipline, Executive Leadership, Meaningful Goals, Self-Worth, Decision Making

Support the show

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The Stoic Inner Strategy is a leadership podcast for founders, executives, and other leaders who carry significant responsibility, even when they have a capable team around them.

Hosted by Scott Smith, Principal Advisor and founder of Akhada Consulting, each episode explores the judgment, discipline, and leadership capacity required to make sound decisions under pressure, develop stronger people, and build organizations that do not depend on one person carrying everything.

Stoic wisdom provides the foundation, but the focus is practical: how to lead yourself, strengthen the people around you, and meet responsibility with clarity, courage, and character.

New episodes are released Monday through Friday, with occasional interviews and special episodes.

If this episode helped you see your leadership more clearly, subscribe to the show and share it with another leader who carries the weight.

Connect with Scott:

• Akhada Consulting: akhadaconsulting.com
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/scott8smith
• Email: scott.smith@akhadaconsulting.com

Memento Mori. Time is limited. Lead accordingly.