Ego is the Enemy

There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance that many grapple with throughout life. I struggle sometimes to portray confidence in myself yet not fall prey to narcissism or overconfidence. Ego is the Enemy provides a new way of objectively looking at your life and dives into the possible outcomes of not actively fighting your ego.

I tore through this book as the ideas Ryan Holiday put forth are exactly what I need at this point in my life. You have to make decisions about your life, who you are, who you are going to be, and how you are going to do it. After having success in my previous sales role and quickly moving into a management role- I have moved to a new company in a new city with a different value proposition.

I have noticed myself coming in with confidence that I can have that same level of success, but also the overconfidence that it will come easy. My focus has been on myself and the end results. Rather my focus should be on the process and work necessary to achieve success.

I realized reading this book that I can’t expect to do the things I did at my previous company without a serious shift in humility and taking my ego out of it. My focus needs to shift again towards finding the people who this new technology I am tasked with selling can improve their business. It needs to be on doing the right things consistently. By doing those things right consistently then success can follow. It cannot be just about recognition. Uncovering my true “why” behind my decisions are imperative to quell ego.

In the book, there are three sections that represent the three phases we constantly shift between in life – aspiration, success, and failure. Through examples from history, Holiday shows the importance of removing ego and the consequences of not.

I highly encourage reading this book and revisiting the ideas that are set forth. I am already planning on rereading this book at the beginning of next year and periodically auditing my own life to ensure I am fighting back my own ego.

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