The material

The man who wrote this was the most powerful person on earth, and he wrote it in a notebook he never meant anyone to read, while a plague killed a tenth of his empire, a war dragged on in the north, and his most trusted general declared himself emperor behind his back.

He was not saying obstacles are good. He was saying they are the material. The thing blocking the road is the road.

If you are stuck right now, you are not off course. You are at the part of the course that makes the person who gets to the end.