In this way the author’s own experiences directed the book he was already contracted to write, and Ego Is the Enemy became: “…the book I wish existed at critical turning points in my own life.” And yet, there they were, imploding right in front of me, one after another.” Their stability-financially, emotionally, psychologically-was not just something I took for granted, it was central to my existence and self-worth. The people I looked up to and trained under. “These were the people I had shaped my life around. Then, in 2014, Holiday witnessed firsthand the effects of ego as American Apparel, the talent agency, and a relationship with a mentor all simultaneously unraveled: Within six years, he became the youngest executive at a Beverly Hills talent management agency, advised authors who sold millions of copies of their books, became the director of marketing at American Apparel, built a successful company, Brass Check, and has written for publications ranging from Forbes to Thought Catalog to The Guardian. Ryan dropped out of college at the age of nineteen to apprentice under Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power.

Holiday’s background is as a media strategist. This is the second book in which he draws from the principles of Stoicism while his previous book, The Obstacle Is the Way, focused on overcoming life’s external obstacles. It was a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, international bestseller, and even has a following among the Seattle Seahawks, Olympic gold medalists, bestselling authors, CEOs, politicians, and many others. Self-centered ambition.”Įgo Is the Enemy, published in 2016, is Ryan Holiday’s fourth book. This book can be an antidote (or at least the beginning of one) to the unraveling that is possible when one indulges ego and loses sight of reality-if you let it: “Not in the Freudian sense,” Holiday says of ego, but ego in the colloquial sense, as in “an unhealthy belief in your own importance. The book Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday is filled with cautionary tales of those who let their egos run amok and were eventually undone by the resulting damage, as well as stories of those who practiced restraint and sobriety, and found success in their endeavors. It is Scylla and Charybdis.” Ryan Holiday

It repulses advantages and opportunities.

“Ego is the enemy of what you want and of what you have: Of mastering a craft.

Ego is the enemy genre