by Stephen Kerr-Robinson

Created on: October 09, 2008

The human ego can be such a strange thing, a lot of people regard having an ego as a negative thing. But I disagree partly on that, I am not saying that having an ego is a good thing. Because that isn't the case either, like most things, having an ego can have advantages and disadvantages. It only becomes a bad thing is when someone accentuates their ego.

You have to look at it from 2 different perspectives though. The perspective of someone who is trying to be a good human being that has a great social life. Or the perspective of someone trying to be a success, within their chosen career.

In terms of wanting to be a success, having an ego is sometimes a necessity. This certainly isn't the case in all careers, but in other cases you have to have an ego. Especially in cases of running your own business, that would require for you to have an ego. Because when running a business you have competitors all wanting to be the best, and if you fail to believe that you are the absolute best even to a point where people resent you. Then there isn't a lot of hope for you succeeding.

And also when you achieve something, you have the bragging rights. It's human nature to hype yourself up after achieving something; some people do it more than others. And that's how an ego develops talking about your achievement and bragging, there are obviously different levels of egotism when you achieve something. People brag to a point where it's all they talk about. But even if you mention it not very often that is still an ego.

So overall on that having an ego isn't such a bad thing, and in some cases will only benefit you in a career. But like a lot of other things having an ego has its negatives as well.

To a certain extent everybody has an ego, but some people are egomaniacal to a point where it can be your downfall on a social stand point. Being social and having lots of friends, this is where having an ego will certainly be a disadvantage. Because people really don't want to hear you talk about how great you are. And overall people will have a low opinion of you, being an egomaniac can make people think that you honestly believe you are above them.

So, my overall assessment is that everyone has an ego. It's not a case of you programming yourself to not have an ego; in some cases people will take a shine to it. As they may see it as you being confident. And being proud of your abilities, there is nothing wrong with that at all. But in other cases it can be a bad thing, because having an ego is fine but if you become egotistical people will hate you for it.

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