Bookworm: Ego Is the Enemy

Our ego is a barrier to learning that can undermine our success, warns Ryan Holiday.

What is the premise of this book?

Ryan Holiday’s message is incredibly simple. Rather than feeding the hungry beast that is our ego, we would lead a fuller, kinder, more productive life by adopting humility and retaining a desire to learn. Ego doesn’t help us achieve things, he says; it makes it harder to achieve things.

(On the subject of hungry beasts, Holiday has advised some of the world’s most successful musicians and lives on a Texas ranch on which he raises goats, cows and donkeys.)

Is he saying we shouldn’t be ambitious?

Not at all. Holiday distinguishes ego from ambition. Ego is the force that stops us learning from mistakes, that lets our pride get the better of us, and that pushes us to achieve things for the sake of achieving them.

Ego is all about success, not the process of succeeding. In an era when there is more pressure than ever to curate a ‘personal brand’ and broadcast our achievements, Ego Is the Enemy warns how social media can blind us to the hard work actually necessary in honing any kind of craft.

Does he have any tips?

Yes, for example, the art of talking less concentrates the mind on more important jobs, says Holiday. If we’re talking, he argues, we’re not doing the thing we’re supposed to be doing.

While this is a simplification, there is substance in this argument: the book is all about doing, not being, and the more time we spend telling people what we’re going to achieve or what we have achieved, the less time we have for the doing.

What should we be doing instead of talking?

Work work work, urges Holiday. Recognise the value of working hard and enjoy the process itself, not just the destination you want it to take you to.

Rather than distilling ourselves into our achievements, we should try to remember that the everyday graft is the place where the big ideas are actually made – however slowly and painstakingly.

Is it all about getting things done?

Not exactly. Holiday also wants his readers to remain students so that they are forever ready to learn. A good student knows that there will always be things they don’t know.

The ego is our enemy, Holiday says, because it wants nothing more than for us to believe we have done it all and beaten all our rivals. Instead, we should recognise that there are countless people out there, including our rivals, who have a huge deal to teach us.

What should we learn?

Holiday advises focusing on what’s important to us. That might sound simple but we ignore this advice all the time when we are seduced by money or by the approval of people whose opinions don’t truly matter to us. Look at the way that people we actually admire have stood the test of time, and follow their example.

To illustrate his point, Holiday uses the example of Ulysses S Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman, who both fought in the US Civil War. Sherman knew his strengths and limitations and became the commanding general of the army.

Grant, who may not have realised the limits on his capabilities, ran successfully for US President but wasn’t much good at all – on account of having no political experience. Grant, unsurprisingly, went bankrupt after his time in the White House on account of being too greedy to see that he was being scammed.

What am I most likely to say after reading this book?

“Ambition good. Ego bad.”

What am I least likely to say after reading this book?  

“I knew it: I’m the greatest person in the history of the world!”