Building a personal brand is a marathon, it takes time, love care, and patience.

You do yourself a disservice if you let ego get in the way by chasing success for the wrong reasons. Unfortunately, I have seen multiple times clients projecting a superficial image of success.

I'm very grateful I observe that early own and implemented safeguards for who I work with. I'm also very grateful that I read the book Ego is the Enemy years ago that has kept me in focus and stay on of course for what truly is important.

For everyone who is trying to build a personal brand, I recommend practicing 3 concepts from the book.

Having the mindset of a student.

Don't tell yourself a story

Having self-awareness

Enter the book Ego is the Enemy.

So Ego is the Enemy a book written by Ryan Holyday who has vast experience in the marketing world starting having worked in running marketing for American Apparel to running his marketing agency and then turning into a book writer the breaks down stoicism from ancient philosophers like Marcus Aurelius, Socrates and many other great philosophers from history.

As Ryan would tell you in his book he was having a lot of success but he became a workaholic and had many personal issues that he was sure that if they would have continued he would have suffered an early death. Shortly after realizing that he tattoed Ego is the enemy on his right arm.

 

Ryan Holiday is one of my favorite authors. I got to talk to him once here in Austin and I'm going to share a few points of the book, why I keep coming back to it, and how I use it to keep myself humble.

This book has guided my decisions and my thought process since I bought it years ago. I use the book as it were the bible. Sometimes I hop in a chapter and there would be something insightful that applies to whatever situation I'm on at the moment.

Having the Mindset of a student

In one part of the book, he explains one of the reasons Genghis Khan was so successful was because he always had the mindset of a student. He absorbed the best from the cultures of the countries he conquered and kept that mindset

Compare that versus us thinking we already know it all. We think we know but we don't and having that type of ego hinders our growth.

Also that the more we succeed the more we have to learn new things because we find ourselves in whole new situations.

The promoted soldier needs to learn politics, the promoted salesman needs to learn how to manage, the chef needs to learn how to run a restaurant. So the learning never stops. Always keep learning!

 

Don't tell yourself a story.

Don't tell yourself a story. Which is a nice way of saying don't get high on your own supply

Don't tell yourself that you are going to build a huge empire because the facts don't support it.

The founders of Youtube didn't set out to build this platform where billions of videos are uploaded. They just wanted to share funny videos.

Jeff Bezos did not set out to become the richest man in the world. He just sold books.

Holiday explains how successful start-up investor Paul Graham who invested in Airbnb, Dropbox and Reddit gives out the following advice.

“Start with a small bet and scale your ambitions as you grow. Make it about the work and the principles behind it – not about a glorious vision that makes a good headline."

But that's our Achilles heel right?

We want to tell ourselves this story about how great we are.

He tells the story of how Napolean had engraved on his wife's ring the words “To Destiny”. And what happened to Napolean? He got a divorce, defeated in war, exciled and infamous.

This is one of the reasons I work part-time. I had a few clients that were very superficial. It was more about the perception of success more than really helping people.

I could not be part of that. I named my brand Trust Visuals because my core values are trust and authenticity and I did not want to feel pressured to work with someone because I had to pay the rent. So I scaled down. I took a 9 to 5 job and decided to focus on getting better at managing my business, focus more on my craft of telling stories, focus more on learning marketing. I'm way happier because of it.

Self Awareness

In the book, you learn about the greek word euthymia which means tranquility in English. Which according to Seneca it means having a sense of our own path and how to stay on it without being distracted by all the others that intersect it. In other words, it's not about beating others, it's not about having more than others. It's about going where you are set out to go. About accomplishing the most that you are capable of what you choose. No more no less.

That is why it's important in defining what you exactly want Ryan explains that this applies especially to money. If you don't know how much money you need by default it becomes more money. This causes a person to waste energy in filling a bank account and being diverted from their calling. You lose your ability to say No.

And that ladies and gentlemen that is what I wanted for my own business. The ability to say No and I have done it multiple times. Turned down multiple projects. I just have a list of other videographers that I refer to clients I think are not a good match.

Do I lose money in the short term? Yes, but I get to build my brand the way I want.

By the way. Ryan explains that the pursuit of money if that is your priority, is fine. It's just that you need to be self-aware of it.

What I love more about this book is that it gives lessons in History. Of all those who came before us. What made them great, what made them stumble and Ryan like a school teacher dissects how ego or the lack of ego left a mark in history and how we can learn from it either to emulate or to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

This book is a must-read if you are trying to build something. We as creators live in our own bubbles sometimes. I know I have in the past and this book brings perspective. Sometimes when I make a mistake. I read the book and I find that not always, but sometimes I can track a mistake down for lack of patience and that is where I have to take a deep breath and focus again on doing the work for the sake of the work.