Recently, I came across this audiobook, and it struck me in just the right way. I struggle with this concept of the ego because I feel it is silly to say one does not have an ego. “I think therefore I am” is a base for individuality and I am is the definition of ego. To define yourself is to have an ego.

This book brings the concept of the ego as the narcissistic jerks who are on massive power trips who make everyone else around them crazy. The way it fits into this blog is that being an artist is a tough line to pull between ego and non-ego behavior. It takes a lot of self-reflection and learning to know the difference between the two.

Learning not to take yourself so seriously and take your work so personally is a tough skill to master. Holiday frames the ego behavior in a historical perspective and gives examples of great companies run by great men and women and how their decisions to indulge in their identity cost them their fortunes. While I have not experienced this on a massive scale, I can attest to it being a problem on a minor scale as well. Whether it is working creatively by oneself, with one other person, or with a small group, tying a sense of self-worth to creative work can be destructive to progress. If people like your work then you "feel" successful and if people don't like your work then you "feel" like a failure. It can be torture.

Another way to see this as folly is to take a departure from Holiday’s thesis and to champion a different tone—being dependent on ego can quickly turn into being dependent on the opinions of others. Since people are so opinionated and diverse, then one can lose themselves trying to get the validation they need to move forward.

I can admit that I have struggled with these concept for years. How much does of an ego does an artist need to function? For me, I indulge in my quiet time, my privacy and wait for inspiration to come. But don’t I need some sort of strength of ego to carve that out for myself? Yes! I do! But any sense of being an artist is killed cold once the artist’s ego demands to be heard and seen.