The Leader's Workout Newsletter – A classical approach to personal growth and developing human excellence, virtue.
We want to welcome you to our newsletter but also warn you.
If you are into post-modern self-help, pop-psychology, and new age spirituality this newsletter is NOT for you.
If you want an authentic, classical approach to personal growth that combines ancient wisdom and modern practice with a focus on virtue – moral, intellectual, spiritual and physical excellence – you are in the right spot.
Here's our vision, what to expect from our newsletter and why you should listen to us.
Our vision
What if you could take the original workout program that Socrates and Plato created for developing leaders of virtue and operationalize it for your daily practice?
Socrates’ goal was the education of virtue – arete in Greek. This was more expansive than our modern understanding of virtue. Arete meant excellence (being your best), ethics (goodness) and living a virtuous, flourishing life.
Socrates' workout program focused on exercising body and mind to develop leaders who could wisely blend philosophy and power, living virtuously as a way of life. Plato's protocol, as explained by Socrates, included ''gymnastics,'' ''music'' (art of the muses) and ''philosophy.'' These concepts were all part of the ancient Greek culture of excellence and education that created the world's first gymnasiums.
Athlete, gymnasium, Olympics, hero, calisthenics, gymnastics, diet and hygiene are all Greek words.
But so are philosophy, psychology, poetry, tragedy, drama, history, rhetoric and music.
And all of these disciplines and practices – the physical ones (gymnastics) like exercise, combat sports, diet and health and the mental and creative ones (music) like philosophy, literature and art – were trained at the same location: the gymnasium.
Imagine being Great, Good and physically fit like Socrates.
What would that workout program look like?
Our vision is to offer you a classical, (mostly) western approach to personal growth. We look to the ancient Greeks, and classical western culture, as the foundation for our holistic growth – in body, mind and soul.
Our content - what to expect
Each week we will share with you wisdom - ‘’deep understanding’’ and ‘’practical skill” - on the art of leading and living well.
Specifically, you can expect the following each week:
Deep dive article: An article on classical wisdom, leadership or modern health practice
Smaller doses of wisdom: An aphorism, maxim or passage to AMP up your week in the Notes section
Think of our weekly content as getting inspiration from three great historical sources of leadership and personal growth wisdom:
Ancient wisdom from Athens and Jerusalem: the love of wisdom and becoming wise: Combining the best of the Philosophers, Poets and Prophets of Athens and Jerusalem. From the original ‘’Akademy’’ of Plato - a gymnasium and a philosophy school - to the Temples and Churches of Jerusalem, we want to learn to love wisdom and develop the practices to become wise and good.
Mirror for Princes: executive leadership: Timeless wisdom on leadership inspired from antiquity, the Middle Ages and Renaissance for kings and princes. Some of the Great Books of western culture from Xenophon, Cicero, Seneca, Plutarch, Machiavelli and Erasmus were part of the Mirror for Princes genre. The focus was on wisdom literature, ethical conduct and responsibilities of leadership.
High performance health institute: vitality and optimal function: We share protocols for health and optimal function – adding life to your years and years to your life. We build upon the ancient Greek wisdom of a “healthy mind in a healthy body,’’ by combining classical wisdom with modern practice, reflected in the best of integrative and traditional medicine.
Why listen to us
Who are we and why should you listen to us?
The Leaders Workout is a resource created by us, twin brothers – Tom Pappas and Dr. Sam Pappas.
Our ideas are a combination of the experience of twin brothers who have a passion for leading, learning, healing and mentoring other leaders.
Tom is a West Point grad, Army veteran and international technology executive working and living in Europe for more than 25 years. Visit his LinkedIn profile.
Sam is a board-certified physician in Internal Medicine and founder of Pappas Health, a health and wellness practice in Northern Virginia which combines the best of traditional and integrative medicine.
Together they combine a loyalty to their Greek heritage (ancient and modern) and years long experience in leadership, personal transformation, optimal health and vitality.
Origin Story of our Shared Wisdom
When Tom finished his military service and entered the business world, he began to develop his own ideas on leadership growth. Tom combined hard-won experience from West Point and the US Army, and a growing world view living and working overseas with the health wisdom of his brother Dr Sam Pappas.
Tom realized that the combined wisdom of a leader and a healer was the key to his personal and professional growth.
Here are the 3 major life experiences that informs our perspective:
The Sons of Hellenism: Ancestors of the Iliad, fighting alongside Achilles and Odysseus. We are the products of the modern Greek diaspora. Our parents, like thousands of emigrants in history before them, left their homeland following war. If you’ve seen the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding you’ve got a good picture of our family life growing up as the sons of Greek immigrants. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0259446/?ref_=nv_sr_
But we also have proud ancient roots. Today our family’s ancestral village Thisvi, in the province of Boeotia, has less than 2000 inhabitants. This village is the location of ancient Thisbe. Near the sea and on the south side of the famous Mount Helicon, Thisbe is featured in the Catalogue of Ships, Book II, in Homer’s Iliad.
Leitos and Penelos were leaders of the Boiotians….
Kopai, and Eutresis, and Thisbe of the dove-cotes; …
Of these were fifty ships in all, and on board
each of these were a hundred and twenty sons of the Boiotians.
--- The Iliad, Book 2, 494 – 510
We often thought as youths, not too modestly, we must admit, that we were the product of two of the greatest civilizations in history: The ancient Greeks and the modern Americans. This experience of being a part of two worlds informed our future leadership and health experiences.
“Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its’ origin.” – Lord Acton
Experiencing the world’s greatest leadership training institutions: West Point and the US military. It was a fascination of the heroes of our Hellenic heritage that led Tom to his first career and initial leadership experience in the military. Inspired by the martial vigor, service to noble causes and the wisdom of the warrior-philosophers and warrior-statesmen of our ancient Greek ancestors, he was called to begin his career path in the military. He was fortunate enough to attend West Point and become a junior officer serving in the US Army, Europe.
“Body and spirit I surrendered whole to harsh instructors – and received a soul.” - Rudyard Kipling
Combining traditional and integrative medicine. Dr. Sam realized that years of traditional medical training and academic knowledge proved an inadequate compass to add value to his patient’s health beyond “taking a pill to match the ill.” This triggered a pursuit for a more comprehensive understanding of real health and wellness, what Hippocrates called positive health. He vigorously pursued the study of the Greek origins of health, not only in its ancient forms but also of the amazing data emerging on the health and longevity of the resilient post World War 2 and pre-industrial age peasant farmers of Greece, in particular Crete and more recently the Blue Zone of Ikaria. This resonated with what he was witnessing first hand in regularly visiting the rural villages of our forefathers in Greece. The result was a fusion of traditional and integrative medicine that combines the best of ancient wisdom and modern science.
“We should believe the truth we have experienced, then try to understand and explain what we have believed.” - Ancient religious philosopher
