Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Business, Entrepreneurship
My Rating: 5/5
Words mean things, and when certain words are repeated in certain type of situations they change behaviour and can change the course of how we live. In the book Ego is the Enemy, when Ryan holiday speaks about ‘Ego’, he does not mean the Freudian definition. He is talking about ego in an informal way, the way we used it in our casual conversations. The ego he refers are the unhealthy belief in our own importance, our arrogance, and our self-centred ambition. That desire for recognition, and those excuses we make to ourselves. This is a crucial concept to understand if you are planning to read this book.
This book draws on versatile stories and examples of how to realise that our worst enemy lives inside our own head. Holiday refers to a situation from his life and various other references that he took from literature, philosophy and history. All these references have one thing in common, that to reach higher levels of power and success by conquering their own egos. Holiday, through these examples, showcase various tactics and strategies to defeat our abominable enemy.
We might think that other people keep us from progressing. However, Holiday exemplifies this thought by how great thinkers progressed the most in enfeebling situations, for example, Victor Frankl who expressed his ideas that developed during the starvation and torturing period of time he spent in a Nazi concentration camp. His book, Man’s Search for Meaning is a collection of those ideas.
When our ego becomes inflated, our perception gets clouded. We intend to overextend ourselves by desiring to gain recognition without working for a deed. Drawing rein in your ego is equivalent to remind yourself that there’s always more to learn. A healthy ego is what helps us getting the success we want, the tasks we want to achieve and recognising what did not work for us and how to do better. An ego is a part of our personality. To recognise the difference between the culprit part and the healthy part of our own ego, this book provide powerful insights. On reading this book you will be able to differentiate better between the two.
This is an extremely important book that I believe I read at the right time. If you want to understand the concept of ego, or you are already familiar with it but want to start battling your situation for a better output, this book is a perfect start.
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Thank you for that clarification at the start. I carry the Freudian definition of the word, so first I was put off by the title. Your distinction helped me appreciate what the author was saying.
That’s exactly the reason I made it clear in the start. I am glad you continued to read this post 🙂