“Most people’s egos prevent them from appreciating: the person who clears the path ultimately controls its direction.” (58) Imagine if for every person you met, you thought of some way to help them, something you could do fro them? And you looked at it in a way that entirely benefited them and not you.” (46) It means you’re the least important person in the room – until you change that with results.” (56) “Greatness comes from humble beginnings it comes from grunt work. “When you are just starting out, we can be sure of a few fundamental realities: 1) You’re not nearly as good or as important as you think you are 2) You have an attitude that needs to be readjusted 3) Most of what you think you know or most of what you learned in books or in school is out of date or wrong.” (53) Clear the path for the people above you and you will eventually create a path for yourself.” (53) “Because we only seem to hear about the passion of successful people,w e forget that failures shared the same trait.” (47) Studious self-assessment is the antidote.” (39) “The pretense of knowledge is our most dangerous vice, because it prevents us from getting any better. There is a sort of ego ceiling imposed – one knows that he is not better than the “master” he apprentices under. “The power of being a student is not just that it is an extended period of instruction, it also places the ego and ambition in someone else’s hands. “There’s a quip from the historian Will Durant, that a nation is born stoic and dies epicurean.” (32) “Impressing people is utterly different from being truly impressive.” (32) “The only relationship between work and chatter is that one kills the other.” (28) “The greatest work and art comes from wrestling with the void, facing it instead of scrambling to make it go away.” (28) We talk to fill the void and the uncertainty.” (27) It’s draining, it’s demoralizing, it’s frightening – not always, but it can feel that way when we’re deep in the middle of it.

After spending so much time thinking, explaining, and talking about a task, we start to feel that we’ve gotten closer to achieving it.” (27)

Even talking aloud to ourselves while we work through difficult problems has been shown to significantly decrease insight and breakthroughs. Research shows that while goal visualization is important, after a certain point our mind begins to confuse it with actual progress. Talking and doing fight for the same resources. “Marina Abramovic says: If you start believing in your greatness, it is the death of your creativity.” (4) If you like the quotes, buy the book here. Below are the quotes I found most interesting. I recently read “ Ego Is The Enemy” by Ryan Holiday.

The ego is the enemy marcus aurelius