Ego Is the Enemy

Ryan Holiday, author of 12 books on stoicism with more than 10 million copies sold, including The Obstacle Is the Way, Ego Is the Enemy, and Stillness Is the Key.

Ego is the enemy is another one of your books.

Ryan's books, like his new one, Discipline is Destiny, which is available right now. Number one New York Times bestsellers, multiple. Some of my favorite ones, The Obstacle is the Way, Ego is the Enemy, The Daily Stoic.

Ryan is one of the world's foremost thinkers and writers on ancient philosophy and its place in everyday life. He's a sought-after speaker, strategist, and the author of many bestselling books and some of my favorites, including The Obstacle is the Way, Ego is the Enemy, and The Daily Stoic.

Art of Resilience by Ross Edgley, Ryan's book, Ego is the Enemy Obscrupters the Way, both been really formative for me.

The last thing I bought on Amazon... a book called Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday. It's been highly recommended. I have not read it. I ordered a book on Amazon in preorder. I love ordering books.

And in that chapter you talk about ego and lots of people have talked about this notion of ego as an obstacle, there's literally a book called I think ego is the enemy by Ryan Holiday.

One of my favorite books on this is called Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday. And it's so crystal clear that the biggest obstacle for many people is their ego.

I'm going to get you a book called Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday. It's a great read. You should read it.

Is it the red covered book?

It's a red cover and a green cover. If I'm not mistaken.

His books, The Obstacle is the Way, Ego is the Enemy, The Daily Stoic and the number one New York Times bestseller, Stillness is the Key, have sold more than five million copies in the US.

I wrote a script and then the keyboard player for the band did the animation for "American Splendor" the movie and through that I met Harvey Peacar who wrote the graphic novel about me "Ego Risk"

His books like The Obstacle is the Way, Ego is the Enemy, The Daily Stoic, and most recently, Right Thing, Right Now have sold more than 5 million copies together.

He would write books like The Obstacle is the Way, Ego is the Enemy, Stillness is Key.

He would write books like The Obstacle is the Way, Ego is the Enemy, Stillness is Key.

He wrote a book that I recommend all the time. Ego is the Enemy.

There's going to be hopefully some other surprises sponsored by Hyundai and that's going to be June 13th. You can get tickets very reasonably priced tickets that include one of Ryan's books.

I think I actually talk about this in my book Ego is the Enemy, you want to make sure that you don't look at other people's stories and sort of project a clarity that was not necessarily there because it wasn't it was not for me.

Ego is the enemy. It's a great book if you've never read it but when you start to to use your personal emotion in in in the decision making process versus the actual facts of to make the decision making process you're ultimately going to lose you make bad decisions

And when I so I'd done The Obstacles Away and I was writing Ego is the Enemy. And he said to me, you know, we should do he said you should do a book, a page a day of Stoicism.

I believe I just finished Ego Is the Enemy where George Marshall was a big character.

And then Truman. But people were worried. They'd had basically 12 years of FDR. That was all they knew. And that was their model for the presidency.

If you haven't read Ego is the Enemy, it's the second Stoicism book that I did. I'm really proud of it. I think it's good. And you can grab that at store.dailystoic.com. We've got signed copies here at the Painted Porch.

I wrote this book, Ego is the Enemy, several years ago.

And so who are the people that have gone before you? What books shaped them? Are you reading them or are you communicating with them? So it's a great question. You meet someone you admire, someone who's more successful than you, and you go, what books got you here? What books changed your life?

When I pick up Mark Suruli's meditations for the first time, I'm having a communion with someone who's been dead for 2000 years.

And so who is mentoring us and tutoring us on this educational practice as well? This is General Fox Connor, who meets a young military officer when they're both stationed in Panama between the wars. This man's name was Dwight Eisenhower.

Ryan Holiday, author of The Obstacles the Way, Ego is the Enemy, Stillness is the Key, and of course The Daily Stoic as I explain the ideas behind the words and shed light on the path that you're on but that I am also on because again we are all struggling to tame our temper and we will all be better if we can get closer to that.

A couple of years ago, Jimmy Butler, now with The Heat, talked about reading Ego Is the Enemy or something. And I was like, there's no way Buzz is not responsible for that. And it turns out he was.

And they were surprised. But it's true when I run and when I'm in the water, words just pop in your head.

And they were surprised. But it's true when I run and when I'm in the water, words just pop in your head.

And I laughed and I was like, thanks, but you know, I wrote that book in this pool.

But the idea of alive time versus dead time. And I'm pretty sure he's the one that told me the story of Malcolm X in prison. How Malcolm X sees that alive time transformed himself in the prison library, turned himself into this crusading civil rights leader that he would become.

John Snyder is the GM of the Seahawks. He just ordered a bunch of copies of Ego's Enemy because that's been one of their pillars of that organization is the idea of not letting Ego get in the way.

John Snyder is the GM of the Seahawks. He just ordered a bunch of copies of Ego's Enemy because that's been one of their pillars of that organization is the idea of not letting Ego get in the way.

John Snyder is the gym of the Seahawks. He just ordered a bunch of copies of Ego's Enemy because that's been one of their pillars of that organization is the idea of not letting Ego get in the way.

He just ordered a bunch of copies of Ego's Enemy because that's been one of their pillars of that organization is the idea of not letting Ego get in the way.

I guess I would have had a one year old then. I would have just published The Daily Still and just published Ego's Enemy.

I was talking about Ego is the enemy which, you know, it was doing okay. I guess it had been out for several months.

And also I didn't know what I didn't know which is of course a theme of Ego is the enemy.

They had a whole stack of ego is the enemy which they give to recruits and players who join the team.

my favorite is ego is the enemy but they're all really great but i like struggle with these things all of the time

but i think you know my first book came out when i sold my first book for when i was 24 years old um and then you know it got option to be a television show like there was all this stuff happens so young

Stacks of ego is the enemy

The place that I wrote a good chunk of the obstacles away in ego is the enemy. I would rent out on the weekends when I was not there. And I've written a good chunk of my books in different Airbnb's over the years when I thought a change of scenery would inspire good writing.

I think he started as my research assistant on ego is the enemy

and he also did the same for the Daily Stalk and he also did the same for Ego's Denemy

If you are not familiar with his work it certainly prepares you for all times but certainly times like these from his work The Daily Stoic to what he's going to talk about today, ego is the enemy.

which I wrote during the implosion of that company actually.

when I published zero books the the thing that mattered was the title of the book like is the title of this book interesting now it's like it's mad and it's right yeah after I'd sold more books now it's attention between is the title drawing the reader or is the fact that I also have fans who exist in the world and they would be more like are they going to be interested in a book on stillness it like thinking about the overlapping diagrams is is a book called stillness is the key going to sell like attract the audience sell better stillness is the key name of author you have to like zoom in to see or is it going to be oh I've liked previous book share this person and I want to go so it's this weird tension right and and actually my publisher on ego is the enemy they were like what if we did this thing where like sort of an artistic statement your name wasn't on the cover

you may have even seen me wrestle with this in the afterward of Courageous Calling something I wrestled with a lot in the preface of ego is the enemy

I wrote I wrote ego is the enemy and I thought a lot about ego and humility and only after the book was out and published did the Aristotelian meme in the middle hit me which is confidence

I read Ego is the Enemy...that was actually for my second album...

I read it and it told...my writing sessions were like amazing because everything even even my own insecurity and my own like fear I was kind of using it to fuel...

during quarantine I read Ego is the Enemy and I started really getting into Stoicism

and then honestly like reading books like yours and I remember Ego is the enemy was a huge one for me and there was a few other ones like the minimalist and some other ones where I got into them and I was like okay there's a different way to live life here

10,000 people have highlighted that sentence in the Kindle edition of Ego is the enemy

It's funny now even as I reread Ego's The Enemy, I feel like there's so many things I would have written differently or done better but it's been amazing to see that book take on a life of its own since I published it and you can grab a sign copy at store.dailystodic.com or pick them up here.

Or the preface of ego is the enemy as this cool quote about how the first thing is that you don't fool yourself and the problem is that you're the easiest person to fool.

when I sign ego is the enemy I often sort of riffing on epictetus I say always stay a student because when we stay a student of philosophy of a great master it humbles us

For some of you to say thanks for your book, Ego's Enemy. It literally stopped me from talking back to a previous boss that I was working under. Can it help me put some things in context at the time?

One of the things I talked about in Ego's anime is like how do you cultivate a relationship with the work where in the back of a gita they say like you're entitled to the labor but not the fruits of the labor so how do you get to a place where that's extra right not why you do it because you can work really hard on something do something that's really awesome it can be ahead of its time or it can be swallowed up by news events or can be you know bungled by a publisher or whatever so you have to cultivate a place where that's not why you're doing because it's a really unhealthy way to do it and some people do it for that reason they want the attention they want the adulation they want the recognition um and it's I guess it's good if you get it but there's no guarantee that you'll get it and it can also be taken away right whether you can cancel or you can become irrelevant or you could screw it up or whatever it is right you you want to cultivate a relationship with the work or at least what I try to do is like I have this book coming out in September and like I want it to be a success I'm about to do the last round of edits

If I say like okay fine uh ego is the enemy yes me why I don't have a succinct answer you obviously do at this point well no I mean if I had a succinct answer I wouldn't I guess you would be able to book out yeah that's true people go like people will go like tell me the book like in one sentence and I go I could have done this in one sentence I was saving on those people

obstacle is the way ego is the enemy

as I was sitting down and writing Ego as the enemy, the things that I'd heard from Frank Shamrock in those books came pouring back and he ended up being in one of my favorite chapters in that book

ego is the enemy there's never been a situation i've ever been in my entire life where i thought you know it would make this better if there was more ego involved no ego always makes stuff worse as Cyril Connelly says ego sucks us down like the law of gravity does it matter how brilliant you are how successful you are how powerful you are ego will be the end of you it will destroy what you've built it will destroy relationships it destroys your connection to your audience ego is the enemy only makes things worse ego is the enemy

ego is the enemy

I even see this with ego as the enemy, right? People go, oh but isn't ego a good thing and I go, you know I talk about that at length in the book and they go, oh I haven't read it.

it's impossible to learn that what you think you already know

they believe that ego was the enemy as epictetus says it's impossible for a person to learn that much they think they already know

Like, ego is the enemy as I was saying. I really wanted to write a book about humility. That's the sort of the germ of the idea but it was in talking to be, oh, actually attacking this same idea from the opposite angle that ego is that the thing we're struggling with more allowed me to find, you know, epictetus as every situation has two handles. One will hold weight one won't. So it's about finding the right handle on the idea that's both creatively interesting, fulfilling, challenging fun, whatever it is and, you know, commercially viable.

Ego as zero kindly famous said, success down like the log grab. Epictetus famous says you cannot learn that which you think you already know.

I just got a text from my friend Lane Kiffin, the coach at Ole Miss and he's on what appears to be a recruiting trip and he's sitting on the plane and he's holding the copy of discipline is destiny, which I absolutely love to see.

I first heard from Lane five or six years ago. He read ego is the enemy at a low point in his career.

he got sent out and he got sent out or he wasn't invited. I forget what it was, but he wasn't there and ended up reading the book after and then went through some stuff in his life, ended up at FAU, reinvigorated his career and then ended up at Ole Miss.

Just a reminder we've got signed copies of all my books in the Daily Stoke Store. You can get them personalized, you can get them sent to a friend, it goes the enemy stillness is the key

he read ego is the enemy at one of the lower points in his career and it's he's sort of credits it with with helping him get back to where he is which today is the head football coach at Ole Miss

he's a big fan of ego is the enemy we talked about how ego makes its way through professional sports

but I knew I was in creation mode recently when I started going through my John Grisham interviews

I went to sleep one night and I had this dream and the dream was I was an astronaut and it was the whole process of like waking up in the morning going to NASA getting the space suit suit on being driven to the rut what and then and then the dream like ends with the countdown and then blast off and the you know who knows what dreams actually mean but to me that was my subconscious telling me that I had all my stuff ready and it was time

I was just working on this second book and I had no idea that they were really part of a series or anything like that um and the publisher my editor came to me uh with this idea she was like we designed this cover like I think you're gonna like it's a whole different direction we're really excited and the idea was the book was all white and it said ego is the enemy on the cover and nothing else like my name wasn't on it it didn't say other books that I'd done there wasn't a description it was just that and there was this part of me that was artistically really intrigued by the idea um and certainly saw like the statement it was making from an ego perspective like you're like I'm gonna take the eye out of it um but then also I was thinking like the reason I didn't end up doing it was I sort of came up I came I don't mean it's a rationalization but it was like an artist signs their work right like for it to be anonymous to not have my name on it like there's almost something that's saying like I'm not proud of this like this isn't me um but it is interesting that like how one presents themselves how one associates with the work is also a statement about the work right

you go as the enemy

So actually it would have been six years ago, probably six, seven years ago, you went on the breakfast club.

And I listened to it and I was asked to be like Dove Lightcasta so I dove into a little bit more and that's when I started and I branched out from there.

So were you still playing at Ohio State then or when was this?

Yeah, it was a little high up to that would have been my... I think the summer in between must have been reaching years of 2016.

And then I noticed it caught me that on my first book to like where I am now my name has gotten bigger on.

When right in the middle one of those books is ego is the enemy and then I was like well is that symbolic and then I was like but actually also it's a market thing right because like when I published zero books.

And I assume that's how today's guest first heard of the books, sort of a surreal experience to watch someone get inducted into the basketball hall of fame. And then to have all the participants be given a copy of my book, what is this?

I know he assigned Ego as the enemy two one or two of his teams over the years as well as stillness is the key

ego is the enemy

ego is the enemy

when you when you have failures there's so much of that that is apparent in how you get in your own way.

Ego is not a flattering attribute but it's also not a positive part of your life. It doesn't make you more successful. It doesn't make you more connected with others. It doesn't make you better at what you do. It's the opposite of that.

Ego gets in there and it grinds down the gears. It messes things up. It separates you from other people.

To me that's what the idea of ego is the enemy is about. It's why I have it tattooed on my arm. It's why I wrote the book.

Lane Kiffin has been a supporter and booster of the books over the years. He read Ego is the enemy and it resonated within.

People go, oh, but isn't ego a good thing? And I go, you know, I talk about that at length in the book and they go, oh, I haven't read it.

this is the key it was realizing especially with the first book it was like I wanted to write a book about stoic philosophy but I knew that the vast majority of people were not interested in stoic philosophy but most people have problems right obstacles are a universal fact of life and so the idea is oh okay let me present a part of stoic philosophy has a tool for dealing with obstacles or a solution to your problem

I've got signed copies of ego is the enemy in the daily stoke store and of course, the ego is the enemy challenge coin which I have sitting on my desk here and there's even an appendent version.

Ego is the enemy, it gets in the way of whatever it is that you want to do, whether you're super successful or struggling to get started.

He also interviewed me about ego as the enemy.

I wrote a book a few years ago called ego is the enemy, not the Freudian ego, but the sort of the colloquial ego.

And people will get emails, people go well, I haven't read your book, but here's why you want it.

I read this book about Ego and probably the most common question I get is how can I do something about my boss's ego? It's never, how can I do something about my own ego, which of course ironically is ego.

ego

ego versus confidence and stillness

I first got introduced or connected with Bob because Michael Phelps kept mentioning Ego's the enemy or the dailystilic.

ego is the enemy arrogance always makes things worse ego never makes things better

And then I listened to ego is the enemy not long after that.

So I don't know very much about racing, so I'm going to say this up front, but sometimes I find that you learn more about the things you have no idea about than when you have the pretension of knowledge.

I used it as a source in Ego as the enemy but given your interest in military jets and then also leadership, have you read Boyd, the fighter pilot who changed the art of war?

I remember when when I wrote you goes the enemy there was this exchange between John Snyder and Pete Carroll someone someone was asking them they said you know how have you guys work together for so long most GM's and coaches are not don't have long term collaborative relationships it tends to be short term or collaborative or or worse they hate each other and John Snyder said something like ego is the enemy meaning that the two of them were able to collaborate because they took ego out of it is how how does that relationship work not just between you and Sean but but how does it work generally because I imagine there is some jockeying for power and control but the only way you're both going to be successful is if you're able to collaborate with each other.

Ego is the enemy of getting better.

Ego is the enemy my book I think it's one of my best books is $199 on Amazon right now it's only for a limited time if you want to check it out give it as a gift it'll never be cheaper than this it's ebook only

I have this book, Ego is the Enemy. And people go, but sometimes Ego's a good thing. And you're like, you think I didn't think about that once? Writing a 300 page book about this topic? Of course, but generally as a rule, this is something that I feel strongly enough about to have tattooed on my arm.

If you like my books like The Obstacles Away or Ego is the Enemy or Stillness is the Key or I sort of tell moral stories.

the as well as the ego is the enemy and now the lives of the Stoics, you know, so I'm a big fan.

And of course, Ego is the Enemy is the title of my book, which without being egotistical, I'd like to say is pretty good and I'm proud of it.

You can also get an Ego is the Enemy challenge coin in the Daily Stoke Store. We have a pendant version and a poster as well. So check it out.

maybe I won't ever write a book as good as Ego or obstacle, maybe they won't sell as many copies like, but that's not going to prevent me from continuing to write.

I remember wanting to do one for my previous books, but not having sold enough books or been cool enough, I guess, to warrant one.

I was writing the next book i was writing ironically what would become ego is the enemy.

This happened to me on one of my books actually with Ego is the Enemy. Sold the most copies out of any of my books. It should have debuted at number one on the national bestseller list, but it wasn't there.

No, because what I take pride in is that I know that I wrote the very best book that I was capable of writing in that moment.

He's a hero in my book, Ego's Enemy.

The ebook edition of Ego is the Enemy is on sale this weekend, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday for just $2.99 on Amazon.

There's an Epictetus quote, you can't learn that which you think you already know, which I love. And it's not in Ego is the Enemy, but I tell it now in my talks.