Ego Is the Enemy

By Ryan Holiday

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About the book

Ryan Holiday argues that the obstacle holding people back is most often internal: ego, which he defines in its everyday sense as an unhealthy belief in one's own importance rather than as Freud's clinical term. Following The Obstacle Is the Way, which dealt with outside obstacles, the book looks at how ego blocks learning early in a career, can hide faults after success and deepens the damage of failure. Holiday's remedy is humility, self-awareness, purpose and realism, and he separates ego from confidence. Short sections draw on figures from history, sport and business, among them George Marshall, Katharine Graham, Bill Belichick, John DeLorean and William Tecumseh Sherman. Holiday had the title tattooed on his forearm.

Adam Grant praised it for showing how confidence is earned by working toward something larger than personal success, and Steven Pressfield called it Holiday's best book yet. Screenwriter Brian Koppelman endorsed it, saying he reads every new Holiday book as soon as he can.

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This book has 12 recommendations

Brian Koppelman (Screenwriter, Director)

I don't have many rules in my life, but one I never break is: if Ryan Holiday writes a book, I read it as soon as I can get my hands on it.

Marc Ecko (Founder/Ecko Unltd)

I see the toxic vanity of ego at play every day and it never ceases to amaze me how often it wrecks promising creative endeavors. Read this book before it wrecks you or the projects and people you love. Consider it as urgently as you do a proper workout regimen and eating right. Ryan's insights are priceless.

George Raveling (Director of International Basketball/Nike)

This is a book I want every athlete, aspiring leader, entrepreneur, thinker, and doer to read. Ryan Holiday is one of the most promising young writers of his generation.

Austin Kleon (Bestselling Author)

The Comedian BIll Hicks said the world was tainted with fevered egos. In Ego Is the Enemy, Ryan Holiday writes us all a prescription: humility. This book is packed with stories and quotes that will help you get out of your own way. Whether you're starting out or starting over, you'll find something to steal here.

Steven Pressfield (Author/The War of Art)

Ryan Holiday is one of his generation's finest thinkers, and this book is his best yet.

Adam Grant (Author/Originals)

Highlights how we can earn confidence by pursuing something bigger than our own success.

Robert Greene (Author/48 Laws of Power)

Inspiring yet practical... teaches us how to manage and tame this beast within us so that we can focus on what really matters - producing the best work possible.

Recommended by Marvin Liao (Partner/500 Startups)

Source: Book-Talk with Marvin Liao, Partner at 500 Startups, Avid Reader & Tsundoku

Marius Ciuchete Paun (Web designer)

The lessons in this book are ageless and universally applicable to everyone. The lesson it teaches us is that the ego is part of us and we have to manage it. Life is full of ups and downs and our ego is always sitting in the dark, waiting to strike us down.

Cristian-Dragos Baciu (Direct Response Copywriter)

Oh, and let's not forget, Ego Is The Enemy by Ryan Holiday.

Recommended by Pedro Cortés (Independent Designer)

Source: Independent Designer Pedro Cortés Talks about Books that Teach & Inspire

Derek Sivers (Founder/CD Baby)

It's rare that I finish a book then immediately reread it, this time with a yellow marker in hand…I can't recommend this book highly enough.

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