With literally billions of people on the planet, it is no wonder that we can run into people from time to time who are hard to get along with. But now and then we run into someone who is so abrasive and rubs us the wrong way that we can’t stand it. Sometimes it’s us, and we need to take a long, hard look at our personalities, but sometimes it is them.

Marcus Aurelius, the Emperor of Ancient Rome between 161 and 180 AD. Known commonly as the last amongst the “Five Good Emperors,” Marcus Aurelius carried the Empire on his shoulders, keeping it from its inevitable downfall and witnessing the worst: a declining national health, a promiscuous wife, a treacherous civil war, the rise of Christianity, a plague wiping out his people by the hundreds, and threat of battle and instability from all corners of the Empire.

Successful people have a high tolerance for discomfort. We tend to think of success as a place to which we arrive where life is a bit breezier and things flow with more ease. However, getting there is a matter of grit, and doing so takes a threshold for being uncomfortable that most people don’t naturally possess.