The egoist does not tolerate egoism.

Australian troops in the Great War were easily recognized: distinctive slouch hats and pea-green uniforms - and always with a staunch sense of egalitarianism.

Australian and New Zealand soldiers made an amphibious landing on the Gallipoli peninsula in April 1915.  The strategy was wholly British design, spearheaded by Sir Winston C. What followed was most people's idea of that war: trenches; sandbags; canned corned beer; the charging of machine guns.  Staggering casualties.

The campaign was a disaster.

During the thick of things - circa July 1915 - a draught of twelve Australian troops were scraping rocks and dirt from their dugouts with picks and shovels.  Everything conspired to make this brutal—frequent assaults from the Turkish forces, constant assault from the sun, unrelenting gruelling conditions.

As the men laboured - all of them shirtless and sweating profusely in the 40-degree heat - a British officer rode past, mounted on a white horse. Once past the soldiers working below him in the dirt, he realized none had paused to offer a salute, so he circled back to accost the diggers.

"Don't you men salute superior officers." His shirt was pressed; boots shined; wearing the Lieutenant rank. He proceeded to lecture from his mounted position on discipline and honour.

The digging had stopped, and all men came to attention. They stood holding a salute to the officer, cooking under the sun.  All the men, save one.  The final man put down the shovel he was using, walked calmly over to his shirt and began to button it back on.

The man was Captain Frederick Tubb.  With slowly diminishing disbelief the British Lieutenant saw that Tubb was a senior officer, and outranked him considerably. His ego couldn't fathom a scenario where an officer would be digging alongside enlisted men. Tubb waited for his salute from the junior officer, then prompted him to go and source more water, bombs and ammo for the night attack.

Tubb would soon after go on to distinguish himself in the Battle of Lone Pine.  He fought trench-to-trench, close-quarter combat alongside his men.  Pockets filled with ammunition and bombs, he held back wave after wave of the Turkish assault even after being shot in the scalp and arm.  He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery, written up as having held his ground with the greatest coolness and maintaining his position under very heavy attack, changing the course of the battle.

Tubb died in combat.  He would continue to concede until his last breath that the bravery and sacrifice of thousands of other soldiers went unrecorded and remained unknown except to their comrades in arms.

***

The most prevalent ego we see is an unhealthy belief in our importance.  Arrogance.  Egotistical ambition.  The petulant child, the one that prioritizes having their way over everything or anybody else.  Ego is the desire to be better than, more than, recognized for, well beyond any rational utility.  It's a type of dominance that goes beyond confidence and talent.

It's easy to spot an ego; big ones more so.  But spotting your own can be more challenging.  Our ego is our silent partner-too often with a controlling interest.

In the best examples, the most aspirational examples, we find that the truly great in sport, business, life, and literature are defined by an incredible humility.  A hunger to learn.  They are perpetual students of their craft—the greatness that comes from humble beginnings, from grunt work.

Raw talent, skill, or confidence aren't rare; humility, diligence, and self-awareness are.  You can't learn what you think you already know.  If you feel you are as good as you can be: you're right.  If you think you know everything, you're right.  Because no one can teach you anything, almost every person you meet will be better than you at something.

As your island of knowledge grows, so does the shoreline of ignorance as you get better, as you go from the student to the player, to mastery, to mentor - what you will be exposed to is all the things you didn't even know you didn't know.  If you're the kind of person that reacts negatively to that, you stick your head in the sand; you get defensive; you get turned off - you don't get better.  Be a student.  Be perpetually obsessed with getting better.  Be confident to say you don't know.

Ego prevents us from collaborating as team members.  It is the enemy of what you want and what you have: Mastering a craft.  Of real creative insight.  Of working well with others.  Of building loyalty and support.  Of longevity.  Of repeating and retaining your success.  It repulses advantages and opportunities.  It's a magnet for enemies and errors.

Your ego screams for people to acknowledge you.  But you must do nothing.  Take it.  Eat it until you're sick.  Endure it.  Quietly brush it off and work harder.

Approach investing like a penitent monk: you know nothing; you have no ego; make no assumptions.  As investors, we are most at risk when driven by ego to always be right.  This is particularly difficult when the world presents outcomes that don't seem rational.

As investors, we can fall into the common trap of confirmation bias, hearing only things which support our current view.  The most successful investors succeed not because they are right all the time but, in fact, precisely the opposite.  They invest with a measured approach to anticipate that the market will often deliver outcomes different from what they expect.