Don’t Learn This Dangerous Lesson
The Daily Stoic
Daily Stoic | Backyard Ventures
4.5 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 18 May 2020
⏱️ 5 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"It’s easy to look at history and learn the wrong lesson. You see Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar and can’t help but connect their enormous ego to their incredible successes. Or you watch Elizabeth Holmes escape consequences for her frauds and Adam Neumann, the founder of WeWork, get rewarded with a golden parachute and think: the upside of ego is enormous and the downside is pretty minimal. You look at a Steve Jobs or a Kanye West and it’s understandable to think that ego is an asset.
This is a mistake. Correlation and causation are not the same thing."
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stood Podcast early and add free on Amazon |
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| 0:07.4 | Hey, I'm Cassie Depeckle, the host of Wunderies Against the Odds. In our next season, Amelia |
| 0:13.3 | Earhart wants to make history by flying across the Atlantic alone, but brutal weather and |
| 0:18.4 | malfunctioning equipment could leave her lost at sea. Listen to Against the Odds on Amazon |
| 0:23.5 | music or wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:31.0 | Welcome to the Daily Stoic, where each day we read a short passage designed to help |
| 0:36.7 | you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living good life. |
| 0:42.7 | Each one of these passages is based on the 2000 year old philosophy that has guided some |
| 0:47.2 | of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at dailystoic.com. |
| 0:52.5 | Don't learn this dangerous lesson. |
| 0:58.5 | It's easy to look at history and learn the wrong lesson. You see Alexander the Great |
| 1:02.5 | or Julius Caesar and can't help but connect their enormous ego to their incredible successes. |
| 1:08.1 | Or you watch Elizabeth Holmes escape consequences for her frauds and Adam Newman, the founder |
| 1:13.4 | of WeWork, get rewarded for a golden parachute and think the upside of ego is enormous |
| 1:18.7 | and the downside is pretty minimal. You look at a Steve Jobs or a Kanye West and it's |
| 1:23.6 | understandable to think that ego is an asset. This is a mistake. Correlation and causation |
| 1:30.4 | are not the same thing. As William Manchester would write of Douglas MacArthur, it's not |
| 1:35.0 | that MacArthur's ego contributed to his success. It's that quote, his guess were so great |
| 1:40.8 | that he repeatedly triumphed in spite of himself. |
| 1:44.3 | Kyrie Irving is not a great athlete because he has an ego. It's that is talent as a basketball |
| 1:49.4 | player was great enough for three teams to absorb his ego in order to utilize those talents. |
... |
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