I have interacted with people who are actually great and people who think they are great; though there is a major difference between these two. 

One is humble, the other is egotistical.

What I have noticed between the two is that, more often than not, the former keeps their awesomeness to themselves, while the other never seems to be able to shut up about how amazing they are.

Fishing for compliments, making shameless plugs about their accomplishments, and never taking accountability for their mistakes are all behaviors I have noticed from egotistical people. While these habits are pretty easy to shake off, there is a more provoking side to these narcissists that is harder to ignore.  

Selfish decisions are the more harmful results of a person not willing to let go of their pride. 

I have lost opportunities to people who felt throwing me under the bus was the best way to avoid damaging their ego. I have lost time, wasting it on people who only saw me as an excuse to better their image. Worst of all, I have lost people because they felt their pride was more important than our relationship.

What I have learned to recognize in people like this is that a person can display their ego out of confidence, insecurity, or a combination of the two. People like to say that confidence is quiet and insecurity is loud, but when looking at a person’s ego, both can be pretty loud.

I realized all of this while having an argument with someone. I was aware he had a bit of an ego, but it was made especially apparent to me in the midst of our heated disagreement. 

We had been arguing about whether or not ballerinas are athletes (which they are, feel free to fight me on that). He shut me down with full confidence, not caring if he sounded like an egomaniac, while also not being afraid to hurl a few slighting comments towards me and my opinions. While this dismissal was an expectation from this person, it was the disrespect towards me that came as a surprise. He turned into a person I had never seen before because now all I could see was his ego. 

This wasn’t about ballerinas anymore. 

I remembered this person had quit every sport he did growing up because he didn’t make any of the high school teams, meaning his “confidence” in his opinion was actually a cover up for his insecurities about his own lack of athleticism. I could have felt sympathy for him, yet he himself cared more about winning this argument, than how I felt afterwards. 

As a rapper in the world of celebrities, Kendrick Lamar has definitely seen what an ego can do to a person. He even wrote a song about it, and he was not wrong in telling the world to be more “HUMBLE.” 

Each of us is one in eight billion, so not all of us can believe that the world revolves around us and our perspectives. It is only when you choose to look outside yourself that you can really start to find who you are and have pride in that.

So sit down and be humble.