Dear Fellow Travelers,
Welcome back to the Perennial Leadership series, where we’re exploring ancient lessons for modern leaders. Here is last week’s meditation, How to Lead Yourself Like Socrates, in case you missed it.
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Be wise and be well.
J.W.
Perennial Leadership
Perennial Leadership is an eight-part series that argues effective leadership emerges from within—not from tactics or titles, but through continuous effort to develop your character, attention, and inner life. Each meditation offers a philosophical insight, illustrated with historical examples and practical exercises designed to introduce ancient lessons for modern lives.
How to Lead with Simplicity Like Epicurus
Most leaders don’t feel like they need another philosophy.
They feel like they need more time.
Their days are packed—back-to-back meetings, constant messages, shifting priorities, a to-do list that never shrinks. They’re overloaded with information, flooded with expectations, and quietly haunted by the sense that no matter how much they do, it’s never quite enough.
In that world, the word Epicurean sounds like the opposite of leadership. We picture indulgence, luxury, fine food, and soft living—exactly what a serious, responsible, high-performing leader doesn’t have time for.
But the Greek philosopher Epicurus taught something very different.
He lived in a small house outside Athens, in a simple community his followers called “the Garden.” There, he argued that most human suffering doesn’t come from hardship itself, but from unexamined desires—from wanting too much, chasing the wrong things, and never knowing when to stop.
Epicurus is not inviting leaders to withdraw from responsibility. He is inviting them to simplify their inner life so they can shoulder responsibility with clarity, steadiness, and joy.
1. Choose Less to Lead Better
Epicurus believed that much of our anxiety comes from confusing what we need with what we merely want. He divided desires into three kinds: natural and necessary (such as food, shelter, and friendship), natural but unnecessary (such as luxury), and empty or vain (such as fame, status, and endless accumulation).
In one of his surviving letters, he writes:
“We must exercise ourselves in the things that bring happiness, since if happiness is present we have everything, and if it is absent we do everything to have it.” — Letter to Menoeceus
For Epicurus, happiness is not found in chasing more. It’s found in needing less.
He insists that simple pleasures—plain food, shelter, friendship, honest conversation—are enough once we free ourselves from the pressure to impress. A leader who believes happiness requires constant “more” will always feel behind, always be restless, always be tempted to stretch beyond their limits.
He writes:
“Plain foods, when they remove the pain of want, give as much pleasure as a luxurious diet.” — Principal Doctrines
This doesn’t mean leaders should avoid success, resources, or growth. It means they must understand when “enough” has been reached—when the marginal gain from more money, more recognition, more expansion is outweighed by the cost in stress, distraction, or moral compromise.
Epicurus would ask modern leaders:
What are you chasing that you don’t actually need?
What expectations are not truly yours, but borrowed from your culture, peers, or fears?
What could you release that would give you back your attention?
To lead with simplicity is not to shrink your life—it is to remove what is unnecessary so that what truly matters can stand out clearly.
Decision Fatigue
Modern psychology supports Epicurus’ suspicion of excess. Research on decision fatigue indicates that the more choices people must make in a day, the more their self-control and judgment deteriorate. Leaders drowning in minor decisions—every email, every detail, every status check—have less energy left for the decisions that truly matter.
Similarly, studies on materialism and well-being show that people who place a high value on acquiring possessions and status tend to experience lower happiness, higher anxiety, and weaker relationships. The chase for “more” comes with a psychological bill.
Epicurus anticipated these findings without a research lab. He knew that cluttered desire leads to cluttered leadership.
