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To make his arguments, Holiday draws on the philosophies of Stoic thinkers, who advise that the only true happiness lies in virtue, and that all material goods should exist solely to help you live a virtuous life. The following sections explore each of these areas. Holiday outlines three overall ways that ego can lead to failure: before success (by preventing you from achieving it), during success (by sabotaging the success you’ve earned), and after success (by preventing you from bouncing back from failure).
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Even slightly elevated levels of ego can hold you back from success and create difficulties in your life. Holiday emphasizes that you don’t need to be a full-blown “egomaniac” (a person completely obsessed with themselves) to suffer the effects of ego. It can also lead to a host of adverse characteristics, such as addiction, depression, mania, and abuse, that can destroy a person’s career (and life). He argues that ego leads us to failure because it causes us to overestimate our own skills while underestimating threats and challenges. 1-Page Summary 1-Page Book Summary of Ego Is the Enemy Fast Summary of Shortform's Guide to Ego Is the EnemyĪuthor Ryan Holiday defines ego as a sense of superiority that goes beyond mere confidence, distorting our perception so that we see other people as either subservient or oppositional.