The Role Ego Plays in your Success

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Welcome to Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass. Jon is the founder and CEO of image group international and award-winning image consulting and personal branding pioneer established in 1989. This podcast will bring you old-school wisdom, inspiring ideas, strategies, and hacks for the new tech world. Here you will learn everything about personal branding: the system, the techniques, and the right mindset to have a successful personal brand, image, and reputation.

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Hello, today our chat will be about the role ego plays in your success. Before we start the show, I kindly ask you to subscribe to the podcast on the platform you're listening to. So every time we have a new episode, you will be notified. Cheers.

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Now let's talk about ego. First, you need to understand that ego is not a dirty word. ego plays a big part in our daily existence. Why? Because if you didn't have an ego, you wouldn't get out of bed in the morning. Ego is all about an aspect that will actually motivate you to go and do things. The distinction I would like to share with you is this, you can have a healthy ego. And that's of course, what we're gonna be talking about this evening. Or you can have a toxic ego. Toxic ego is, of course, the opposite spectrum. But, you know, surprisingly, you'll discover that toxic ego also is highly compatible with high-level success for a small percentage of the population. So it's not that it's wrong, but it might not actually fit the purpose for who you are. So we'll give you a bit of a distinction as we move on. And then you make a decision on what part of the spectrum you want to play on.

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The truth is that a healthy goes part of us that breeds self-confidence. It manages our identity and motivates us to work hard and achieve our goals. So by you having a healthy ego, you get up in the morning, to live your purpose, to live your core values, and to virtually action, your mission. So without some form of ego, you wouldn't be able to do any of that. And ego is not about you beating your chest and telling the world how great you are. Ego is about recognizing that you are valuable that of course, everything starts with self. And without understanding and appreciating self. Nothing ever happens. So we start off by appreciating who we are having a healthy ego so we can get into action for our purpose daily. You might ask me, John, what is the difference between a healthy and unhealthy ego. While I've already explained to you the differences from the point of view of what a healthy ego does for you. An unhealthy ego can be detrimental to your life for the majority of people, it can virtually turn people off from the perspective of relationships.

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And that means also one on one partners, right down to groups, your employees, your team members, your colleagues, etc. It could also turn off basically people from wanting to associate with you, and you heard the same, an egomaniac. But the interesting thing around this concept called unhealthy ego is this. There are many, many, many successful people in society with highly inflated unhealthy egos. And what you'll notice is really clear if you study them is a lot of them are very covert, in how they mask their what we would call is unhealthy or narcissistic out of control ego. So a lot of practice can actually create that for an individual. And of course, if they've had a lot of experience and many years of doing that they can become masters at it. You know, if you study a lot of politicians, moguls world leaders in all aspects from business to, to religion to non for profit, you'll find a lot of unhealthy egos. So the key here is it's you know, what sort of a life do you want to lead? Do you want to lead a life with a healthy ego? Virtually that specifically keeps you balanced? Or do you want to use unhealthy ego pretending, pretending that you are all together still been very successful in life? But at times disconnected from self. So this is up to you. And this is something for us to consider.

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The opposite of being egocentric or self-centred is to be allocentric. Our centric is to have one's interest and attention focused on others. Of course, this sounds really noble. But the reality is to put the needs of others above your own, although at times might sound and feel really, really positive, long term, it's not recommended as a first step. And because of that, because the reality is you got to look after yourself. Number one, everything starts from self. So if you want to be our centric, start looking after yourself, your self, your personal ego in a managed healthy way, as number one, so that it lends itself where then you have the capacity to also then focus on other people and make a big difference in their lives. So I'm a big believer, if you want to make a difference in people's lives and your community to the world, make sure you make a difference in your life first.

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So now that you understand why he goes not a villain, but actually a friend, it's time to know how you can serve you well, and also make a difference to aspects of your Korea, business and of course, personal life. Firstly, your ego, when it's done in a healthy way can support you in reading your potential. I mentioned before, from a career point of view, yes, a healthy ego in the workplace, is what a leader would have a healthy ego invites people to come on the team to be cooperative to work together. A healthy going business also brings on the whole team and team players, and collaborators onboard investors, as opposed to, you know, an unhealthy ego that you'll have most likely people running the other way. And of course, from a personal point of view, it creates healthy relationships, healthy ego healthy relationships. So because virtually it's all about relationships. And of course, the ego plays such a big part in supporting and cultivating relationships when it's done with an effective Win-Win approach, as opposed to an unhealthy win-lose approach with a typical toxic ego would come from. Secondly, your ego can boost your resilience. What does that mean? Well, when you get up in the morning with a healthy ego, and specifically at times, you don't want to get out for whatever reason, what your ego does, from a resilience point of view is keeps on pushing you keeps on reminding you, hey, this is what you've got to do. From a healthy perspective, your ego will get you out of bed, we'll get you into action. And we'll get you to do things at times when you don't want to do them. So if you look at it from that perspective, ego, of course, in this case, is definitely a positive word. And of course, from a resilience point of view, and especially in the world where mental health and other forms of
pressures are on us. 

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Of course, your positive, healthy ego will make a big difference in getting you into action. And certainly, your ego allows you to accept criticism. Yes, a healthy ego does not get caught up with people's opinions of what they actually think of them. Of course, we all have a sensitivity as human beings. But a healthy ego says okay, that's your point of view. Okay, so maybe your point of view is not exactly right. But I'll accept that because that is your point of view. So a healthy ego allows you to weather the storm, a healthy ego gets you to stand up and fight what you believe in, and a healthy ego will get you into action to create exactly what you want.

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Before I finish, let me tell you about my ego, and how it's helped me in my professional journey. Well, first of all, for all my clients out there, and of course, my friends and colleagues, you know, that I'm not particularly out there from a bragging perspective of ego, ego, ego at the same time now I promote and celebrate the concept that you got to have a healthy ego to get your stories out, you're gonna have a healthy ego from the point of view of sharing your wings, and creating conversations. Because if you haven't got that, you know, or you've got a timid ego, that's not going to happen. And it's going to come across, obviously to your audience. If that does come across that way, your confidence drops your perception from the people you're communicating to drops, including, of course, the marketplace, and you don't get the results that you're looking for, to share a story. Before I finish, I want to tell your story that's actually helped me, as I mentioned earlier, a story basically, around how I utilize a healthy ego to do a major presentation to 1000s of people, of course, and this was one of my first presentations. And one of my first presentations specifically was to 1000s of people without having the experience, you know, I hadn't earned the right to get on that stage. But I did have a healthy ego and, from a perspective of at least, you know what, I can give it a shot. I'm not afraid of losing if it goes the wrong way. But you know, but I can always try again if it doesn't go my way. And more importantly, I'm going to be alive to try again. So that story particularly is what got me on the stage, and potentially launched me without me known at the time on to the worldwide audience from an early age, and also brought in, you know, big financial returns from a time basically that I hadn't earned the right remember, you know, I hadn't had the experience or the brand image in the marketplace to do that. But my healthy ego said, you know, what, John, what have you got to lose, you're going to get on stage is going to be a minimum of 3000 people that the worst thing that could happen is they're going to laugh at you. They're gonna think you're a fool again. But more importantly, that will give you the chance specifically, to at least give you some feedback, so I can improve next time. The worst case is, you know, they're all gonna think I'm a joke. More importantly, though, for me, what it was is, if I fail, I'll be still alive to try again. And of course, that's a great demonstration for me. And I haven't forgotten that, of course, being you know, over well over 35 years ago. That aspect of a healthy ego is what kept me going back on stage after numerous failures. And of course, hopefully, with enough practice, you start to get some successes. So that's my story, and I would certainly recommend it to anybody because you know, your perception of yourself is the most important thing before anyone else's perception of you.

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Okay, folks, I believe we are near the end of the show. If you'd like to show a call, they ask you to write it on Apple Podcasts. For this, you just need to click on the link on the episodes description. Also, you can share this episode with friends, family and colleagues. You can also share it on your social media. You can follow me on Twitter at John underlined Michael on LinkedIn as John Michael and on Facebook As image Group International, I also asked you to write the show on Apple Podcasts. For this, you just need to click on the link on the episodes description. Last but not least, please email me directly. If you think I can help you in your personal branding journey. The email is in the description of the episode. I thank you again and look forward to seeing you next week wishing you abundance in all you do. Cheers.

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Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass" Podcast is sponsored by Image Group International, a global team of practical, digitally savvy personal brand and image strategists, based in Australia, committed to maximizing your impact, influence and authority in the business world.   To learn more and apply for your personal coaching, seminars and group workshops please visit imagegroup.com.au or call 1800 631 311.