The Philosopher

The stock market hits record highs -- and generates widespread anxiety about the consequences of a crash. Companies use the Internet to reach millions of customers -- and struggle to keep pace with the demands of Internet time. People lead virtual teams and direct global projects -- and grow weary of traveling and checking email.

No wonder so many people -- even those who are genuinely excited about the new world of business -- worry that their lives are dangerously out of control. How much is enough? No wonder, too, that many of these people believe that they are the first ones to struggle with questions of money and power, of pace and pressure.

Tom Morris knows better. He has made a celebrated career out of applying the insights of history's great thinkers -- Seneca, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle -- to the demands of business today. Morris, 47, spent 15 years as a professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. His classes were so popular that he sometimes taught 1,200 students a year. In 1996, he left Notre Dame to start the Morris Institute for Human Values, in Wilmington, North Carolina, a think tank that applies the wisdom of the ages to modern business and contemporary life. Morris has worked with organizations such as Coca-Cola, IBM, Merrill Lynch, Motorola, and the U.S. Air Force. He has also authored 13 books, including "True Success: A New Philosophy of Excellence" (Putnam, 1994) and "If Aristotle Ran General Motors: The New Soul of Business" (Henry Holt, 1997). What can the ancients tell us about the promise and the peril of the new economy? "History is littered with the stories of people who 'make it' beyond all expectations, who have more than enough -- and who then crash," Morris says. "It's a drama that has unfolded in every field of human endeavor since the beginning of time."

In an interview with Fast Company, Morris offers time-tested wisdom on an urgent question: How much is enough?

Why do so many people lead lives that feel out of control?

The greatest case of mistaken identity in modern society relates to the four marks of public success: money, power, fame, and status. I have no problem with money, power, fame, or status -- as long as they're treated as resources, rather than as goals in themselves. But that's precisely the problem for most people -- and that's why it's so hard for people to answer the question "How much is enough?" If acquiring money or fame is your goal, how do you know when you have enough? Everyone I know who has a little wants more. But everyone I know who has a lot also wants more.

The only way most people recognize their limits is by trespassing on them -- by going so far in pursuit of money or position that they finally realize that they've gone over the line. Aristotle warned that the problem with desire is that it feeds on itself. That's still true: After you make your first $1 million, your natural impulse is to want $10 million. As an ancient philosopher might have said: Desires make good servants -- but bad masters.

How do you guard against the impulse to want more?

The people I know who are satisfied with their income or their position are people who treat those things as resources -- not as goals. They know how much is enough because, for them, money or power has instrumental value. Do you have enough money? Enough for what? To maintain a certain lifestyle? To provide security -- freedom from worry about the future? Those objectives have price tags, although the prices are different for different people.

Seneca, a Roman orator, lawyer, and Stoic philosopher, lived during one of the periods of greatest excess in human history. Seneca amassed a fortune, and he achieved fame in Rome as an adviser to the young emperor Nero. But he urged anyone who'd listen to him to spend one day a month living on bread and water and sleeping on the floor. Why? Because, by doing those things, you realize how little you need to survive. Most people are pushed into excess by their fears: "How would I survive if I stopped working for this client, or if I didn't make this trip, or if I turned down this project?" Seneca wanted people to distinguish their needs from their desires. You don't have to sleep on the floor once a month, but that distinction is crucial for getting at the heart of "enoughness."