Sterling Terrell

recovering economist

Level Of Ego

Level Of Ego

I am not sure I completely agree here, but I guess it depends on the person and the level of ego involved.

For I know many high achieving people that have done well in more than one arena.

Sometimes success breeds success.

But a willingness to be humble and ask questions – in anything new – is a large advantage.

I mean, a successful blogger can just assume they know everything about book publishing, for instance.

The more successful people have been in the past, the worse they perform when they enter a new environment. They become overconfident, and they’re less likely to seek critical feedback even though the context is radically different.

-Adam Grant, Originals

Pride Comes Before A Fall

Pride Comes Before A Fall

The phrase pride comes before a fall comes from a verse out of the Bible.

It’s Proverbs 16:18 (NKJV): “Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.”

It’s true because the very act of thinking you are above everything makes you vulnerable to the unexpected.

But be cautious – as Franklin points out – for beating down pride is never a victory.

It is a constant fight.

Maybe treat it as a system, rather than a goal?

For more on pride/ego, see Ego Is The Enemy, By: Ryan Holiday.

In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this history; for, even if I could conceive that I had compleatly overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.

-Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

Sterling Terrell