Ego Is the Enemy
Ryan Holiday
Summary
Holiday does a fantastic job explaining how your own ego is holding you back from reaching your full potential
Rating: 4/5
Notes
Ego: an unhealthy belief in our own importance
If you start believing your greatness, it will be the death of your creativity - Maria Abromovic
Be humble in your aspirations, gracious in your success and resilient through failure
Though we think big, we must act and live small in order to accomplish what we seek
Silence is the respite of the confident and the strong
‘To be somebody or to do something’ - John Boyd (which way will you go)
The preference of knowledge is our most dangerous vice because it prevents us from getting any better. Studious self-assessment is the antidote
‘It is impossible to learn that which thinks one already knows’ - Epictetus
Forget about passion, think about purpose and realism
Find canvases for other people to paint on. Clear the path for people above you and you will eventually create a path for yourself
Be lesser, do more
Help yourself by helping others. Let others take their credit on credit, while you defer and earn interest on your principal
Take it (people yelling at you). Eat it until you’re sick. Endure it. Quietly brush it off and work harder. Play the game. Ignore the noise.
Don’t live in the house of the abstract, live with the tangible and real
Humility engenders learning because it beats back the arrogance that puts blinders on. It leaves you open to the truths to reveal themselves
Always stay a student - Frank Shamrock
Instead of pretending you’re living a great story, remain focused on execution and executing excellence
Figure out why you’re after what you’re after
We never earn the right to be greedy or to pursue our interests at the expense of everyone else
Ego blocks us from the beauty and history of the world
Don’t be deceived by recognition you have gotten or the amount of money in your bank account
Protect your sobriety and focus on the work in front of you
Life takes your plans and obliterates them; sometimes once and sometimes lots of times
The great failing is to see yourself as more than you are and to value yourself less than your true worth
Don’t worry about the outcome because effort is enough
Success is peace of mind, which is a direct results of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming - John Wooden
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Make Something Wonderful
Steve Jobs
Summary
The life of Steve Jobs in his own words
Rating: 5/5
Notes
Make something wonderful and put it out there
‘You appear, have a chance to blaze in the sky, then you disappear’
When you’re a stranger in a place, you notice thing you don’t otherwise (Jobs after India trip)
Whenever you start with nothing, always shoot for the moon. You have nothing to lose.
You never achieve what you want without falling on your face a few times
Never be afraid to fail. You never achieve what you want without falling flat on your face a few times
We are never taught to listen to our intuitions, to develop and nurture them. But if you do pay attention to these subtle insights, you can make them come true
Creativity equals connecting previously unrelated experiences and insights others don’t see
Believe that some of what you follow with your heart will come back and make your life richer. And it will. And you will gain even firmer trust on your instincts and intuitions
Make your avocation your vocation. Make what you love your work.
The journey is the reward. The reward isn’t in the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it’s in crossing the rainbow
To find A+ talent, if experienced, look at their track record and results
The world we know is a human creation and we can push it forward
The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do (read whole ad ‘here’s to the crazy ones)
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit - Aristotle
Hire people better than you are
You can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life
It’s impossible to connect the dots looking forward, but they make sense looking backwards so you have to trust the dots will somehow connect in your future
Everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you
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