I wonder whether you have seen children play games with a bat or a ball, like cricket or football. Then seen these kids get upset with decisions that haven't gone their way, just pick up their bat or ball, and walk away saying, "I'm done!" leaving everybody else in a bit of a fix. That is a good early symptom of a slowly growing ego. "They would rather opt-out of the game than be flexible enough to find a compromise and continue playing," says Todd Henry, adding that, "ego is something that can kill creativity, kill innovation and can kill collaboration." It doesn't allow for people to work together; it brings in a "victim "complex that doesn't allow teamwork.
I spent some time reading through the book by Walter Isaacson that came out some time back, called "The Innovators." It's a brilliant book, a compendium, actually that chronicles the whole evolution of the computer and the Internet. He takes it right back to 1835 – the time when it was really embryonic. But, in the middle chapters, he talks about the evolution of the transistor and how technology moved from the vacuum tube which some of you may remember to the solid state era. That came about because of a guy called William Shockley. He was born in 1910. He went to MIT and graduated when he was 26 years old and was known for his brilliance. Eventually he teamed up with 2 people, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. They would go on to get the Nobel Prize for their work with the transistor in 1956.
But if you read carefully through Walter Isaacson's account of what happened, you will see how a very brilliant man didn't end very well. He was known for his incredible creativity. He joined Bell Labs, moved on to Beckman Instruments. He was given the Nobel Prize along with Bardeen and Brattain in 1956. Yet, along the way, he found that everything that he was doing was beginning to make him think that he was larger-than-life. That eventually led to a clash with the one who had funded the entire enterprise, Arnold Beckman. Finally, eight of his people couldn't handle him and left to start Fairchild Semiconductors. Isaacson goes on to show how a once brilliant person finally ended up in a place where he couldn't get along with people, dealt with extreme paranoia and "the genius who conceptualized the transistor and brought people to the promised land of Silicon Valley became a pariah who could not give a lecture without facing hecklers." A sad end to a brilliant human being.
Ego is this three-letter word that brings down giants. Men and women who have meteoric rises and yet, cannot handle the fame and the publicity and the success that they get. And their descent is even swifter than their ascent.
In Jim Collins book "Good To Great", he writes a little bit about Lee Iacocca and the time when Iacocca's ego got too big. Many of us have read Iacocca's own book and been inspired by it. Collins brings out this aspect of Lee Iacocca that brought him down in the eyes of many people. Iacocca took Chrysler to great heights, "after being on the brink of catastrophe, performing one of the most celebrated (and deservedly so) turnarounds in American business history." Chrysler's market value went up 2.9 times half way through his tenure, but in the second half fell 31% behind the general market. Enamored by his popularity, Iacocca spent his time appearing on talk shows, "personally starred in over eighty commercials, (and) even entertained the idea of running for president of the United States." Sadly, Collins adds, Iacocca had trouble letting go of the "perks of executive kingship." He postponed retirement many times. Finally insiders at Chrysler (and I quote) began to joke that Iacocca stood for 'I Am Chairman Of Chrysler Corporation Always.' He didn't have a very good end to his tenure and many credit that to a burgeoning ego that overshadowed his renowned brilliance.
Ego has been the stumbling block of more men and women than history can recount. From every walk of life, this three letter word that often simply embodies I, Me & Myself has been the downfall of many successful people. The old adage, "Pride goes before a fall," is still so true. How loosely we should hold on to our successes, how careful we must be in handling our achievements, and how vigilant we must be in keeping our egos in check, that we can go the full distance, stay the course and finish well.
In the article that I mentioned earlier, Todd Henry says that there are 3 traps that we must be careful about.
1. Playing the victim: The internal dialogue – if they don't listen to my ideas, then I'm just not going to offer them any more. And we shut up, refuse to get involved in the deliberations that are going on. We're really saying, "There is no use trying very hard on this project because my efforts won't be valued anyway." We can't take any kind of dissension or people not agreeing with us.
2. Aggressive defense of your 'turf'. We sense that someone else is encroaching on something that we perceive as our area of influence and we feel the need to try and protect it. We don't allow credit to be taken by others; we don't share our ideas, and are extremely cynical of the work of others. Henry says that there's a huge difference between confidence and inflated ego. "Ego says 'I can do no wrong'; confidence says 'I can get this right'. Confidence says 'I'm valuable' while ego says 'I'm invaluable'".
3. Being easily offended. We perceive everything that is said as a personal attack. Any disagreement is an indication that somebody is questioning our competence. When we put our self-perception ahead of our work, we are in danger of compromising our best efforts. Collaboration also becomes more challenging, because others grow tired of walking on eggshells around us.
Ego, a three-letter word, and yet one that we need to be so careful of. The reason is this: nobody sets out saying that I'm going to have a big ego. It begins to sit upon us subtly and then slowly begins to work in our downfall. I was challenged to take a good hard look at myself and ask these questions: Do I have an inflated ego? Am I being careful about that? That might be a good thing for us to think about– to just do a check and ask some hard questions: Am I being careful? Am I getting too proud? Am I letting my ego run away from me? Scriptures caution us: Don't think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves. My prayer is that we would be inspired to look critically at ourselves and do a thorough, honest self-evaluation.
A word to the wise? J
May I offer this prayer on your behalf?
Almighty God. Thank You for the way in which You bless us in the work that we are doing. If by any chance, any of us have been fuelling our egos and making them big, we pray that You would show us. Help us to do an evaluation of ourselves, to be honest with ourselves and not think of ourselves more than we really are. We ask You to help us, Heavenly Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
• Collins, James C. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap-and Others Don't. New York, NY: HarperBusiness, 2001. Print. Pgs 29-30.
• Isaacson, Walter. The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution. New York: Simon & Schuster. 2014. Print. Pgs.131-169
• Henry, Todd, Get over yourself: How Your Ego Sabotages Your Creativity. http://99u.com/articles/19327/get-over-yourself-how-your-ego-sabotages-your-creativity
• Bible reference:Romans12:3 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%2012:3&version=NLT
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