Originally shared in our November 2025 Top of Mind Newsletter.
How do you react when your plans fall apart? Do you feel defeated, or do you see a new opening? In this exploration of the Stoic concept Amor Fati (“love of fate”), Brendan Hufford challenges us to go beyond merely bearing necessary burdens. Instead, drawing on the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and Viktor Frankl, Hufford argues that we must embrace every event, good or bad, as essential to our journey.
This concept strikes at the heart of the entrepreneurial mindset: the ability to transform obstacles into opportunities. Adopting Amor Fati means we stop wasting energy wishing circumstances were different and start using our challenges as raw material for growth. It shifts our internal narrative from “I have to get through this” to “I get to build with this,” ensuring that we are always moving forward, regardless of the terrain.
“My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it… but love it.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche