Quarter book review — Ego is the enemy

• Very dense and solid book with tons of anecdotes and elevated prose.
• Will likely require multiple readings with an open mind to truly absorb the message.

This is one of those books that you should read when you’re feeling intellectually stimulated and productive.

It’s also difficult to absorb the book if you have your ego up, like I did, it’s hard to accept some of the statements as they seem counter to the #keephustling & #youcandoanything culture we see promulgating in the society today. It counters these popular feel good messaging in the society we have of you’re unique, special and that you can do anything with a healthy dose of realism.

I begrudgingly acknowledged and appreciated the example of William Sherman, a brilliant strategist and military leader who led to victory against the confederates in the civil war. The author, Ryan Holiday, traces the journey of Mr Sherman’s life and how he’s the ultimate symbolism of very effectively managing one’s ego and actually delivering on output and results rather than trying to portray it to be so. An interesting anecdote that how he leveraged his experience as an unglamorous scout, which gave him insight into the lay of the land, and led his troops to victory in a similar path as a ego driven general would’ve taken albeit with very different results.

A fascinating comment I found on youtube which is relevant here is

“Ego is the self protective mechanism in all of our minds to help to protect against hurt. Consequentially, for the fear of physical hurt someone might be overly agressive or passive to protect against it. For the fear of lacking respect of others we will modify our personality so that others will see us with respect. For the fear of lacking respect of ourselves we will lie to ourselves, we will be overly prideful and narcissistic. Having a bias toward what puts us in a good light versus what is true. For fear of not belonging to a group with love and acceptance, we will take abuse to simply escape isolation. For fear of not having enough resources we will be greedy and selfish. Speaking from experience its the points in my life where I have no ego that I am able to see the whole picture and be truly intelligent.”

Thanks MisterZ3r0!

Another interesting thing which struck me was the cover of the book. It features a headless bust of a muscular greek man(general?) and conveys the essence of the book very well in my opinion. The headlessness points to the lack of ego and the musculature to accomplishment and ambition.

Ambition — this a key cornerstone in the book and the author delves into it as part of a 3 stage view on life.