A review/ summary of the book "Ego is the Enemy"
Author: Ryan Holiday
Genre: Philosophy/ Self-help
Ego is the Enemy
Introduction
This book is an interesting one. I did not have a recommendation for reading this, and I had no plans on reading it either. It is just that the cover and the title sparked my curiosity and I had to know more.
I had little to no expectations going into the book and I find myself thoroughly impressed by it. Partially because of my interest in Stoicism, partly due to the book being beautifully written.
Summary
The book is divided into three sections. These sections are the different forms of ego one might face in their life depending on what their current circumstances are. The three sections are:
Aspire
This section of the book appeals to anyone still in the "struggle" phase of their journey. The author makes sure that the reader understands that getting the work done is more important than anything else
Success
This section of the book calls to anyone who finds themselves riding the wave of success. In this section, the author elaborates on how the ego found in the aspiring phase is different from the ego found in the success phase. The ego in the aspiring phase prevents us from doing work, while the ego in the success phase actively brings us down. This is a thing one should be aware of.
Failure
The author mentions that ego hurts in failure as well. Like the ego in the aspiring phase, the ego in failure keeps the fallen down. The person who can swallow their ego and get themselves to work is the person who cannot be kept down by failure for long.
The book in three sentences
1. One must be able to put their head down and just work. (To work and not be bothered by the fruits of their labor.)
2. Pride always comes before a fall. Humbleness will take you to places pride can only dream of.
3. "Not to aspire or seek out of ego
To have success without ego
To push through failure with strength, not ego."
Highlights and notes
The book is filled to the brim with wonderful nuggets of wisdom. Out of all of them, these are the two that resonated with me the most (Just so happens that I used one of them as a sentence in the previous section)
Vain men never hear anything but praise
Not to aspire or seek out of ego
To have success without ego
To push through failure with strength, not ego.
This is such a wonderful summarization of the book that is done by the author himself. No sequence of words can come close to so accurately describing the book.
Thoughts, Concepts, and Takeaways
The book is full of insights and takeaways. These are some of the takeaways that I have gathered for myself.
Social media is super-natural. The amount of validation we receive is unseen throughout history. This can make us especially dependent on validation. A sort of dependence that can hinder our regular functioning as humans living in a society. One must be mindful of this and be aware of the risk they take while indulging in social media.
By talking about action, one is just postponing the action itself. Getting your head down and just working is an essential skill. To talk about your goals is just wasting energy that could be used in achieving them. One must not lose focus of their vision for some validation.
There is great value in teaching. It makes one aware of one's shortcomings as well. To be aware of one's true skill level, one must be in direct and constant contact with three kinds of people.
- One with Greater skill (To learn from)
- One with Lesser skill (To teach to)
- One with Equal skill (To challenge oneself)
Being a student puts a cap on how high your ego flies because the teacher will always be there to humble you. This may not be said for teachers in an academic setting, but for a teacher that you choose, there will always be a gap in the skill level, which will be used as a tool to keep the student in check.
Passion is not enough. One must have a purpose and be realistic with their goals. Passion needs to be paired with drive and action to get something tangible. Otherwise, it is all just chatter with nothing to show.
People who guide other people are really in control. You do not have to be in the spotlight to be the person pulling the strings. Many times, it is people that are not in the spotlight that pull the strings, even in the real world.
Know your worth, and don't overcharge. Ego often leads to an inflated sense of self-worth.
There is no audience to perform for. Just work that needs to be done. Get it over, and relax.
If you have something to boast about yourself, you won't have to.
Working your ideas into reality is the only way others can know of the genius that is you.
Don't let your ego convince you that the work or job of learning is ever over. It is a life-long process and you will have to do it for as long as you live.
To have the goal of success is pointless. You just work and success takes care of itself. There is no point in planning the "When" of a win. Just the "How".
Reverse engineering success fails to tell what happened. Look at it this way, you don't get to see all the rejected drafts when you see the end product. There is much more to success than analyzing other "successful" people.
One must always know the "Who" and "Why" of their competition. Otherwise, it becomes a meaningless sprint towards nowhere.
Knowing what and how much you want comes with power. This is the power of independence. You either know where to stop, or you grind away to eternity.
You cannot have everything all at once. Trade-offs have to be made.
Entitlement brings ruin. The need for control and paranoia brings cages. Freedom from these three makes you freer and happier.
The taste of success might have you thinking about yourself. About things that you have "earned" and are "rightfully yours". It is all an illusion and works to distract you from the work at hand.
Reality is much greater than you can ever be. There is no point in chasing a legacy because it will be erased with time. Nothing lasts forever.
To remain sober in the face of success is a very useful skill to have. It helps focus on the job more than the distractions.
Failure comes uninvited. Ego keeps it hanging around.
To change anything, an active effort is required. This time of active effort is what the author calls "Alive time". Passively letting things happen is a sign of "Dead time". One must be able to use whatever circumstances they find themselves in to create something better for themselves. Instead of blaming the circumstances and doing nothing, one should actively work on improvement.
Doing the work is enough. To be caught up in rewards is not nice. A person that is motivated by rewards will stop soon, while a person that has the drive to keep working for the sake of working will keep on working no matter what the circumstances are.
Most troubles are temporary unless you decide otherwise.
Judge yourself by your own standards. One must not use someone else's scale to measure their own progress.
Hate, saltiness, bitterness, they all lead nowhere. To act on them is just a waste of energy.
Just like it is not enough to mop a floor once and call it clean forever, one must always keep on checking their egos and make sure one does not lose themselves.
Analysis of the style of the author
The author bears a very conversational tone throughout the book. It feels as if you are listening to Ryan without any filter. This adds to the beauty of the book. The author also chooses to illustrate each and every one of the points that is said in the book with a real-world example. This works wonderfully. Although some of the examples are a bit niche, that does not come into the way of the explanation. Most of the time while reading this book, I found myself reading the anecdotes and the practicality of the advice that is being given alongside them. The author does a great job at selecting and using the anecdotes for his benefit.
Conclusion and rating
This is a book that I feel needs multiple readings to fully grasp and digest. As the author himself says, this requires constant effort. I will be returning to this book time and again for lessons in humbling. This is a book that I feel everyone should at least read once, if not multiple times. The value this book holds is tremendous. As far as the book goes, I'll rate it a 4 out of 5.