Ego is the Enemy - Ryan Holiday

Have you ever stopped to think about the real effects of ego and arrogance on your life? Probably not.

But this feeling can produce danger in your life and needs to be defeated.

Ryan Holiday comes to explain how falling into the clutches of the ego is easier than you might think, especially in the context in which we operate, in the face of social networks and the needy our society have of being seen as a winner every time.

Do you want to find out how to completely overcome the dangers of the ego and transform the way you see your life? Follow us on this summary and check out the fundamental steps!

About the book "Ego is the Enemy"

"Ego Is the Enemy" was written by Ryan Holiday and shows how the ego can completely destroy your career and success.

With simple examples of geniuses, great entrepreneurs, and celebrities from around the world, the author shows the dangers of ego and how it can lead you to make the worst decisions ever.

About the author Ryan Holiday

Ryan Holiday is a successful author, entrepreneur and marketer in the United States.

Since a young age, he helped companies and public people climb the biggest steps of success.

After premature failures of projects that had everything to work, he came to see the ego's influence (and danger) in his life and decided to change completely.

To whom is this book indicated?

This book is for you, who are already suffering from the effects of your ego and want to change the way and transform your life.

Entrepreneurs, students or anyone who owns a project and wants to get it off the ground will also benefit and understand what it takes to get out of the clutches of ego and make the best decisions.

Main ideas of the book "Ego is the Enemy"

• The ego can destroy dreams and even accomplishments already achieved;
• Ego traps can affect even humble people;
• Talking too much about yourself is the thing that takes nothing away from paper;
• Hard search for recognition only leads to bad decisions;
• Thinking about the project, not just in yourself, is the best way to make good decisions;
• It is possible to overcome ego with rationality.

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Overview: Introduction

Early on, the author points out a truth that will be with us for the rest of our lives, but which few people realize.

All the time, no matter what your situation is, your worst enemy is always something that is already in you: the ego.

According Ryan Holiday, his own career seems to have been filled with success, and he has always believed in what he heard, which indicated that he was a prodigy.

However, this narrative omitted something important: he failed a lot, all the time, and every success he built suffered uninterrupted failures until he stopped and analyzed his own life.

The ego at its most human essence

It is important to say that here the author is not talking about the ego in the psychoanalytic or psychological sense.

The ego defined by him is the one we usually see in everyday life, something the author defines as arrogance or an exaggerated understanding of the importance of oneself.

In other words, the ego already considers you so big and unique that it keeps you from growing and really reaching your potential.

The ego strengthened by social networks

According to the author, we are living a true ego culture. After all, it has never been so easy to talk about yourself and take advantage of your own victories, with an audience of thousands of followers to listen to it.

The point is that much of what is said on social networks is an exaggeration or something that is unrealistic.

Living in this lie is dangerous in many ways, and it can prevent you from actually taking the first step to truly achieving success.

The 3 stages of every project

Ryan Holiday states that we are all in at least 1 of the 3 stages of any project. They are:

1. Aspiration;
2. Success;
3. Failure.

The book "Ego is the Enemy" says that whatever the stage, the truth is the ego can be harmful. It doesn't matter if you are still building something that is your dream.

The ego can destroy the construction of your dream, or destroy the success you have already built.

On the other hand, if you are experiencing your first major fall, this feeling may also limit you and close your eyes to opportunities of reconstruction.

Overview: Aspiration

Wishing for something is part of life, and it is what drives us to do the best we can for what we believe. And yes, self-confidence and understanding one's own potential is crucial to achieve success.

But there is a huge, though rarely noticed, difference between self-confidence and arrogance, the second provoked by ego.

Ryan states that the great problem with society is that we have been taught to constantly depend on external validations.

The danger is that you are so caught up in acting for others that you forget to put your plans into practice. To make aspirations really palpable.

The ego makes us talk too much and do less

Probably, you have already heard someone saying that anyone who talks too much does nothing. According to the author, this is a great truth.

Talking about your business, your studies or the problems you are facing in your working life can be very tempting. But the main point is that this speech generates nothing more than empty relief since nothing has been taken off the paper and the problem has not been resolved.

What's more, talking too much about something you're still building, about an unborn business, can even hurt the launch.

Be an (eternal) apprentice

Maybe you think you already know a lot about running a business, or even about the profession you have chosen. Even considering yourself a high-level professional, so success is only a matter of time.

Well, in that case, the author suggests that the first thing you need to do is to throw all that belief away.

This kind of belief is limiting and preventing you from seeing what you need to learn from now on. And there is always something to learn.

The book "Ego is the Enemy" shows the features of an Apprentice:

• Be always willing to learn the basics as well as the advanced;
• Accept that there are people who know (much) more than you;
• Absorb content, filter and learn the most useful;
• Be self-critical and know what it takes to improve;
• Wish always to perfect yourself;
• See an opportunity to growth in learning from a master.

Pride precedes the fall

The author advises to don't be fooled by the pride of your own achievements, because they can disappear suddenly.

If you are too blind just looking at your own success, you do not identify what you can do to grow even more and what you need to do to get up after a loss.

A great way to prevent pride from blinding you, according to the book, is to receive feedback from people who work with you or those around you.

In addition, knowing exactly the path you want to take in your life is also critical to not be carried away by small victories and end up stagnating.

Overview: Success

Many can find success short-lived, something that can disappear at any moment. This is true, but often this may happen simply because of ego.

The Danger of Arrogance and Addiction in Control

Ryan highlights that it is common after all your journey and achievements, in detriment of doubts and difficulties, that you feel that you have a kind of gift and have reached the top of where you could go.

The problem is that having such a confidence is a risk, and if you are not careful, you may be consumed by paranoia and the unhealthy need for control.

If anything starts to go wrong, sticking to this ego blindness can lead to two risky paths: either you don't see the problem coming and fail, or you lose control and become paranoid to the point where you can't do anything rational.

The risk of being taken by paranoia is that it often causes what you obsessively try to avoid and it all falls apart.

Self-knowledge is the key

At this point, you may be wondering how to prevent, then, the ego, arrogance, paranoia and so many other things from taking you away from the success you have struggled so hard to achieve.

The answer is simple: self-knowledge. Knowing how to control yourself and understand, separating what's important from what's a priority, and know how to delegate tasks.

It even means recognizing your own weaknesses and points where it is not so good.

Believe me, your inefficiency in one piece of work that can undermine everything that has been achieved. If you are not good at something and can delegate to another, you better do it.

Seek sobriety

It has already been told that the problem with ego is that it can turn you blind. All you need to keep up with what you have achieved is sobriety, no matter what happen, or what your pride and arrogance say.

According to the author, this requires a lot of strength. But understanding yourself and controlling your own ego while maintaining sobriety is essential.

Overview: Failure

No one wants to fail, or even make a mistake, but these are common, and also, even fundamental processes for success.

However, often the loss can be caused simply by the lack of readiness caused by the ego.

In other situations, your ego keeps you from finding solutions that help your business get out of trouble and avoid ultimate failure.

The effort is enough

One of the pitfalls of such a feeling is the desire of being recognized for what you do.

In Ryan vision there's no problem in recognition itself. The problem lies in you searching so blindly hard for this that you lose what really matters.

Here, the author leaves a lesson, he advises you do your work not expecting for rewards, but just because you must do it.

Know when to stop

Failure may occur in your life, and you need to learn to deal with it. Preferably to learn from it.

When failure is coming, it is common to despair and look for options - often bad - to keep everyone from knowing possible loss. This only leads to more problems.

It is important to know how to be resilient but to do so consciously and with clean and fair plans.

The book "Ego is the Enemy" says to don't avoid failure just for thinking in what people will say about it, but because you really believe in what you are doing.

Failure is not as bad as your ego thinks

According to Ryan Holiday, from failure it is possible to learn a lot. And there's more, it can be an opportunity for you to completely change the way you are doing things.

Losing something is inevitable, but learning is a choice that is possible only by ignoring ego and pride.

What do other authors say about it?

In the book "Focus", Daniel Goleman argues that practice only brings you closer to perfection if done smartly, that is, if the person practicing is using that time to make adjustments and improvements.

The book "Emotional Intelligence", also from Daniel Goleman, clarifies that IQ contributes only 20% to your success in life. The rest is the result of emotional intelligence, which includes factors such as the ability to motivate oneself, persistence, impulse control, mood regulation, empathy and hope.

Finally, in "15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management", the author Kevin Kruse explains that most entrepreneurs adopt a morning routine to re-energize themselves physically and mentally.

Okay, but how can I apply this to my life?

After going deep into the teachings of the book, here are some tips you can start putting into practice in your life:

• Stop talking about yourself and your project, and do more;
• Don't think of things like "What will they think if I fail?";
• Throw away the arrogance and understand that you will never know everything about the area in which you operate;
• Avoid working for recognition, do everything because you know it needs to be done;
• Have a purpose in everything you do;
• Do not obsessively seek for success, it is the result of a well done job;
• Maintain rationality even in situations of despair, such as imminent failure.

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