I like stoicism as a philosophy of life. And Epictetus is one of the "classical" stoic philosophers. But I find this interpretation a bit trite; it's tinged by what I can only describe as an "American way of seeing the world". After all, no one lives in a void, and we are very much influenced by our surroundings. This interpretation just didn't do it for me. Epictetus's work is definitely worth a read, but maybe in a different translation/interpretation.