Delegating some of your work to others forces you to do two things: Trust increases the speed of everything in a business, the more employees trust one another, the faster things get done. This not just inflates your own ego, it’s also a huge missed opportunity to build trust with the people you work with. Have you ever held on to an incredibly dull task, just because you thought no one else can do it better than you? I do this all the time, especially for repetitive to-dos. Lesson 2: Delegate tasks to learn to trust in others. Going back to beginners and helping them exposes you to the full spectrum of skill levels and is another way to restrain your ego. However, it pays to look both up and down the chain: take some time to mentor and teach others.

This keeps you humble and encourages you to learn from the best in your field. Ryan suggests you think of yourself like many of the ancient Stoics did: an eternal student of life, dedicated to learning as long as you live.

It might be true that these basic principles won’t change much, but there’s a huge load of things for me left to learn when it comes to making money, writing, selling, relationships, other people. However, that sometimes leaves me thinking: “There’s not much left I can learn here, I won’t change any of these for a long time.” Every time that thought crosses my mind, I call bullshit. I’m disciplined, spend very little of the money I’m earning, live a frugal life – I just know I’m going to win in life thanks to these. I’m proud of my attitudes and habits towards life. “It is impossible for a man to learn that, which he thinks he already knows.” – Epictetus How could we not start the summary of a book about stoicism with a quote from one of the all-time greats? If you want to save this summary for later, download the free PDF and read it whenever you want.ĭownload PDF Lesson 1: Think of yourself as an eternal student to stay humble. Ready to confront your biggest enemy within? Let’s take your ego to church!

Reflect honestly on your performance when you get surprising results.

Here are my 3 favorite ways to make it happen: Putting reigns on your ego helps you in both good and bad times, because you’ll neither stress about failures, nor let success turn you into a diva. Ego Is The Enemy will help you do the same. Looks like he’s learned how to keep his ego in check. Since then, he’s published three books about Stoicism, lives a humble life in Texas and spends a lot of his time writing. He’s pulled crazy PR stunts for big brands and authors, but 3-4 years ago, his focus shifted a lot. Having apprenticed under Robert Greene, who wrote The 48 Laws of Power, he went on to become director of marketing for American Apparel. Listen to the audio of this summary with a free reading.fm account:ĭon’t let Ryan Holiday’s goat-y, remote farm life fool you, the man is a marketing mastermind.

Ego is the enemy or obstacle is the way