Ego is the Enemy: The Fight to Master Our Greatest Opponent

Although we share with many others a vision for greatness, we understand that our path toward it is very different from theirs.

Ego leads to envy and it rots the bones of people big and small.

Everyone buys into the myth that if only they had that— usually what someone else has—they would be happy. It may take getting burned a few times to realize the emptiness of this illusion.

In this phase, you must practice seeing yourself with a little distance, cultivating the ability to get out of your own head.

In fact, many valuable endeavors we undertake are painfully difficult, whether it’s coding a new startup or mastering a craft. But talking, talking is always easy.

To be or to do—life is a constant roll call.

The only relationship between work and chatter is that one kills the other.

“instead of finding out how something they desire might actually come about, [they] pass that over, so as to avoid tiring deliberations about what’s possible. They assume that what they desire is available and proceed to arrange the rest, taking pleasure in thinking through everything they’ll do when they have what they want, thereby making their l

“a persistent cycle of pragmatic learning, experimental adaptation, and constant revision driven by his uniquely disciplined and focused will.”

According to Seneca, the Greek word euthymia is one we should think of often: it is the sense of our own path and how to stay on it without getting distracted by all the others that intersect it. In other words,