Discussing the Ego - Love it or Hate it
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One aspect of life is all the emotions we have as individuals. One of the hardest pieces for me is managing my ego and I don't mean that in a one sided view of having a large ego. Being able to balance your ego is crucial for success in life as having more ego helps boost your confidence and allows you to take risk. Not having enough ego can prevent you from personal and career growth. For example, imagine you want to get married and have a family. If you are looking for a spouse you need to have some confidence in asking people out and managing a relationship where your needs are met. From a career perspective it impact promotions as you might not ask for one or you might not take on the big projects which would allow you to get promoted.
On the other hand, having a big ego makes you a large risk to yourself and in my career of finance, it can ruin entire companies. Being overconfident or worse, delusional, means you'll take on projects that you will clearly fail. As much as some ego helps you build relationships, the lack of an ego will make you intolerable to others. No one wants to hear how great and wonderful you are all the time and also no one wants to be bullied.
Being able to balance your ego to the point where you take calculated risks in life while remaining humble is very challenging. The amount of ego you have will vary over time and being able to get the right amount will always be a challenge. In this podcast I talk a bit about my struggle with my ego and some of the external factors that made it too large at times and too small at other times.