A recent podcast from Gary Vaynerchuk brought out a quick slew of comparisons. I had to listen a few times to get them straight, but here’s what he said:
“Ego is slang for insecurity, and I think a lot of people mix up confidence with ego. Confidence is humility, and ego is insecurity. You can be confident and humble, but being insecure and humble is much harder to contain in a human.“
To break down his thoughts, we have:
- Ego = insecurity.
- Confidence = humility.
- Being insecure and humble is hard to do.
- Therefore, having an ego and being confident is hard to do.
It all makes sense until the final conclusion where it gets a little tricky. Having an ego and being confident is hard to do? It feels like people do that a lot.
His real comparison is simply confidence versus ego. If we see someone with one of those traits, we often assume the other as well, but maybe that’s not the case. If ego comes from insecurity and confidence comes from a place of humility, they’re quite different things.
Personally, I strive to have confidence but I don’t strive to have an ego, so I guess that checks out.
What do you think? Do you think a big ego is someone hiding their insecurity, and that being confident is showing humility?
