Ego Is the Enemy

“Be affable in your relations with those who approach you, and never haughty; for the pride of the arrogant even slaves can hardly endure”

Humble in our aspirations Gracious in our success Resilient in our failures

Just one thing keeps ego around—comfort.

When, as the football coach Bill Walsh explained, “self-confidence becomes arrogance, assertiveness becomes obstinacy, and self-assurance becomes reckless abandon.”

The ego we see most commonly goes by a more casual definition: an unhealthy belief in our own importance. Arrogance. Self-centered ambition.

Instead, I have tried to arrange these pages so that you might end in the same place I did when I finished writing it: that is, you will think less of yourself. I hope you will be less invested in the story you tell about your own specialness, and as a result, you will be liberated to accomplish the world-changing work you’ve set out to achieve.

I’m not saying you should repress or crush every ounce of ego in your life—or that doing so is even possible. These are just reminders, moral stories to encourage our better impulses.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool.

Ego has cost the people I admire hundreds of millions of dollars,