big ego

I found this book in my cubicle left from the woman I replaced- btw congratulations Brooke!

You’ll notice the before and after photos. If a book is good, this is what it looks like after I read it.

Not the point. This book is great. It’s message is delivered in very simple terms, it’s not long, and the font is at least 20 pt, but this small 125 page book makes you think, originally, about other people’s ego’s and then author Joel Epstein turns the tables on you. He literally tells you at the end to read the book again, and don’t think of anyone else but yourself.

 All of our egos are balls of energy that are the same size. We face our egos each day in almost every encounter we have. It’s our ability to control “Information Cops” and “But Man’s” that come within us, to prevent us from hindering our own selves.  We all have something to gain from the people we meet every day. If you can’t accept this thought, you’re losing.

“Every man I meet is in some way my superior, and I can learn from him.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

No one is right 100% all of the time. This doesn’t make us stupid, uncreative, or unsuccessful. Why not expose ourselves to as many possibilities, ideas, and concepts that we can in order to broaden our way of doing things? I got excited when I was able to connect this book to another one I’m currently reading “The Wisdom of the Crowds” by James Surowiecki. I love when, without intent, 2 books I read simultaneously relate to the other. I digress…

To truly have and exercise an ego that provides the most productive and successful result, you have to have the ability to step back and really understand a situation for what it is. Don’t allow your ego or fear of being wrong or humiliated from preventing you from gaining something to learn.

I’d rather experience a minute of hesitation and self-inflicted humiliation for raising my hand and asking a question than do nothing and still be unclear. Perhaps the answer is somewhat elementary, but I’m that much smarter, than if I sat in silence.

 No one wants to be wrong, but it’s ok to be wrong! It takes a lot to “Bend Your Elbow” and take responsibility for something and see how you can amend it. I’ve been wrong MANY times in my life, but one thing my parents instilled in me was that it always feels better to take responsibility to work towards a solution than argue on the subject, which never accomplishes anything.

The point of this book is not to put your ego aside, but how to put it to its highest and best use for you.

“The lesson that most of us on this voyage never learn, but can never seem to forget is, that to win is sometimes to lose”.

But it's not really losing is it? Amen.