While the history books are filled with tales of obsessive, visionary geniuses who remade the world in their image with sheer, almost irrational force, I’ve found that if you go looking you’ll find that history is also made by individuals who fought their egos at every turn, who eschewed the spotlig…
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Ego Is the Enemy
The instant Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and international bestseller “While the history books are filled with tales of obsessive visionary geniuses who remade the world in their image with sheer, almost irrational force, I’v
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There is a real danger in believing it when people use the word ‘genius’— and it’s even more dangerous when we let hubris tell ourselves we are one. The same goes for any label that comes along with a career: are we suddenly a ‘filmmaker,’ ‘writer,’ ‘investor,’ ‘entrepreneur,’ or ‘executive’ because…
What is truly ambitious is to face life and proceed with quiet confidence in spite of the distractions.
Make it so you don’t have to fake it— that’s they key. Can you imagine a doctor trying to get by with anything less? Or a quarterback, or a bull rider? More to the point, would you want them to? So why would you try otherwise?
Work is finding yourself alone at the track when the weather kept everyone else indoors. Work is pushing through the pain and crappy first drafts and prototypes. It is ignoring whatever plaudits others are getting, and more importantly, ignoring whatever plaudits you may be getting. Because there is…
Living clearly and presently takes courage. Don’t live in the haze of the abstract, live with the tangible and real, even if— especially if— it’s uncomfortable. Be part of what’s going on around you. Feast on it, adjust for it. There’s no one to perform for. There is just work to be done and lessons…
The question to ask, when you feel pride, then, is this: What am I missing right now that a more humble person might see?
A person who can think long term doesn’t pity herself during short-term setbacks.
If your reputation can’t absorb a few blows, it wasn’t worth anything in the first place.
It’s a temptation that exists for everyone— for talk and hype to replace action.
The only real failure is abandoning your principles.
Without an accurate accounting of our own abilities compared to others, what we have is not confidence but delusion.
A smart man or woman must regularly remind themselves of the limits of their power and reach.
If you’re not still learning, you’re already dying.
Entitlement assumes: This is mine. I’ve earned it. At the same time, entitlement nickels and dimes other people because it can’t conceive of valuing another person’s time as highly as its own. It delivers tirades and pronouncements that exhaust the people who work for and with us, who have no choice…
Absorbing what goes on around him, filtering it, latching on to what he can hold. A student is self-critical and self-motivated, always trying to improve his understanding so that he can move on to the next topic, the next challenge. A real student is also his own teacher and his own critic. There i…
What is rare is not raw talent, skill, or even confidence, but humility, diligence, and self-awareness.
Greatness comes from humble beginnings; it comes from grunt work.
Humble in our aspirations. Gracious in our success. Resilient in our failures.
Impressing people is utterly different from being truly impressive.