Ego is the Enemy: Review

Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday is the second book that gives me chills after Outlier by Malcolm Gladwell. It is a reminder that while passion and dedication are paths to success, unchecked ego will lead to destruction

Here are some highlight:

Plus-minus and Equal by Frank Shamrock (an American former professional mixed martial artist). Each fighter needs to have someone better that they can learn from, someone less who they can teach, and someone equal they can challenge themselves against. (Get a mentor, have a mentee and peer(s)

As our island of knowledge grows, so does the shores of our ignorance (Each victory and achievement that makes you smarter also bumps you against new situations you've never encountered before.

Make it so you don't have to fake it rather than the famous fake it till you make it.

The bigger the ego, the harder the fall.

The way to rise is by reorientation and increased self-awareness, not self-pity (your own or from others)

Ego makes it impossible to learn that which one thinks one already knows.

A true student is like a sponge, absorbing what goes on around you, filtering it, latching on what he can hold.

It takes a special kind of humility to grasp that you know less, even as you know and grasp more and more.

The little things are endlessly engaging and often flattering, while the big picture can be hard to discern.

Ego says being the center of attention is the only way to matter.

As Goethe once observed, the great failing is “to see yourself as more than you are and to value yourself at less than your true worth.”

Many significant life changes come from moments in which we were thoroughly demolished. From the ruin comes an opportunity.

Recognition and rewards are just extra. Rejection is on them not on us.

The effort is enough.

Thank you