Comments on: Ego

By: Newshoes

Newshoes — Fri, 23 May 2008 00:35:28 +0000

Remember Boyd on being and doing.

…all I see is that you took your fork in the road. You’ll be allright.

You’re not going to be a publicised prodigy, so what. You’re not in it for the eyeballs, and you know it.

Haven’t you said it so many times?

In a Marcus Aureleus-esque narrative to yourself.

Not to care about all that comes from it.

But to lead a good life.

You’ll be allright.

By: BW

BW — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:28:35 +0000

I love the stories about The Executive and how he thinks.

Thanks,

By: Ben Casnocha

Ben Casnocha — Wed, 21 May 2008 08:50:24 +0000

I agree that “talking” is easy, “doing” is hard, and if you spend all your time talking, you’re not doing.

By: Kakutogi

Kakutogi — Tue, 20 May 2008 19:09:56 +0000

you know what i love most about this blog that probably hasn’t been mentioned before? The tendency of it to almost always conclude before that square of advertisement.

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 20 May 2008 17:10:53 +0000

Also by not insisting on taking the credit you can avoid being lumped in with those insecure people who demand or struggle for attention. You can gain respect because if doing something mildly important seems so casual to you maybe you spend time doing much more important things. And It also plays off the idea that if I treat is as not a big deal it becomes not a big deal and my self-confidence isn’t wrapped up in the outcome.

All important things when conducting relationships

By: Ryan Holiday

Ryan Holiday — Tue, 20 May 2008 13:55:40 +0000

Ben – You know as well as I do that you’ll never be able to talk about half of the great stuff you’ve done. If you did, you wouldn’t be able to do it anymore.

In my opinion, all this Gen Y, Millenial talk is bullshit. To the people who wake up and actually do stuff everyday – who have the ability or the power to move the needle – it is utterly irrelevant. Those are the people I’m talking about, let’s call them anyone who posts at this site: http://www.brazencareerist.com/

The reason they’re able to sit back and put everything in these neat little categories is because they look that way from a theoretical 10,000 ft view. Reality is much messier. And it almost never includes “The One Interview Question You HAVE to Know.” You talk to Brad Feld, you know how it actually is.

Yes, the title of the post is Ego, but more specifically, I’m trying to explain that being a prodigy or kid who gets written up in the newspaper for their homeless charity is easy. It’s mostly fabricated anyway. I’m sure it feels really exciting too. But if you want to actually get in with power brokers and people compete at the highest levels, your best bet is to pass ALL of that up.

Would you agree?

By: Ben Casnocha

Ben Casnocha — Tue, 20 May 2008 13:00:07 +0000

Ryan,

I agree that external attention can be distracting, both practically (spending time doing stupid interviews) and “emotionally” (becoming obsessed with how people perceive you, etc).

Where I think this post is maybe a bit dishonest, though, is the first sentence: “I chose…”. By the sheer fact of having your own blog with your own name and writing your musings on the world, how, exactly, are you choosing not to be “one of those people”? What choice have you made that’s different than what anyone else has made? Have you said no to every single interview request, not answered any email to you from a blog reader, and tried to be as anonymous and “focused” as possible? Based on the very site this comment is being left on, I can’t see that being true.

By: Amrin

Amrin — Tue, 20 May 2008 12:45:07 +0000

Very cool post x

By: steve

steve — Tue, 20 May 2008 08:20:19 +0000

This post was good, if only for comment on Scoble. So true. Gets things done, or be obsessed with every little thing. Good post overall.

By: Holly Hoffman

Holly Hoffman — Tue, 20 May 2008 07:44:11 +0000

In my neck of the woods, we call this remaining humble. If I let my ego inflate, if I start to believe anything I hear about myself, if I let myself believe that I don’t have at least 12 ways I could be a better person/ blogger/ employee/ friend, etc., then I’ve lost it. The moment I say “I have arrived” then I am gone.

When you think you’ve got it, you don’t. When you think you don’t have it, you’ve got it.