Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, your worst enemy already lives inside you: your ego.

The ego we see most commonly goes by a more casual definition: an unhealthy belief in our own importance. Arrogance. Self-centered ambition.

At any given time in life, people find themselves at one of three stages. We’re aspiring to something—trying to make a dent in the universe. We have achieved success—perhaps a little, perhaps a lot. Or we have failed—recently or continually.Ego is the enemy every step along this way.

When we remove ego, we’re left with what is real.You must practice seeing yourself with a little distance, cultivating the ability to get out of your own head.

The only relationship between work and chatter is that one kills the other.

Pride blunts the very instrument we need to own in order to succeed: our mind.

The question to ask, when you feel pride, then, is this: What am I missing right now that a more humble person might see? What am I avoiding, or running from, with my bluster and embellishments? It is far better to ask and answer these questions now, with the stakes still low, than it will be later.

Instead of pretending that we are living some great story, we must remain focused on the execution—and on executing with excellence. We must shun the false crown and continue working on what got us here.

The only real failure is abandoning your principles. Killing what you love because you can’t bear to part from it is selfish and stupid. If your reputation can’t absorb a few blows, it wasn’t worth anything in the first place.