This episode of the Hard Men podcast is brought to you by Joe Garrison with backwards planning financial.

MaxD. trailers, salt and strings butchery, keep wise partners, forged beard company, premier body armor,

Reformation Heritage Books, Boniface Business Solutions, and by White Tree Solutions.

In 1934, Upton Sinclair ran for Governor of California.

Before the election had taken place, Sinclair took a rather unusual approach.

He wrote a book titled I, Governor of California, and How I Ended Poverty.

In the short manuscript, he explained how, in the past tense, he had made such extraordinary decisions as governor.

The book was an instant bestseller.

Sinclair had leveraged his most powerful asset, which wasn't as a politician, but as an author.

There was just one problem.

Sinclair, well, he got thrashed in the general election. In fact, he lost by about

250,000 votes, which amounts to a loss in the general election by a margin of more than 10%.

Friends of Sinclair said, as soon as he was done writing the book, he essentially lost interest

in the actual campaign. You see, his thoughts had gotten way out ahead of what he had actually done so far in the political

campaign.

He behaved as if his work was done, as though all his bold talk had actually changed reality

when, in fact, it had done, well, nothing.

Sinclair fell prey to a temptation that is common to all men.

His talk and hype and imagination got wildly out ahead of his action and the results it produced.

In this episode of the Hard Men podcast, we'll talk about how we can all make this mistake

and why, in the end, ego is the enemy.

The story of Upton Sinclair is told in Ryan Holiday's book, Ego is the enemy. In that short but helpful book,

...