Harnessing the Ego

Through a series of short stories told to the reader in the setting of a conversation taking place in the author's backyard, Joel Krech shares how the ego can be harnessed, managed, and controlled to benefit both the reader and the people in their life.

Standard advice: show up and work hard, and you’ll be successful. We’ve all seen and heard that formula with success as the desired outcome…So what? Then what?

What will your impacts be? 

What does someone else’s definition of success have to do with your own journey? 

The problem with advice is that it often represents the values and perspectives of the person giving it.  Advice is therefore inherently limited in value if the person receiving it isn’t thinking very carefully about their own values and their own journey, and why they’re on a journey in the first place. 

My book is anti-advice. Instead, Harnessing the Ego – A Survival Guide for Professionals asks the reader to think about what comes after figuring out the importance of working hard. This book is not a seasonal or situational perspective on reacting to current events. It’s a message for the individual, about the long term.  I’ve written a series of short stories and linked them together to present some ideas for navigating whatever we call a career, having a positive impact on those around us, and strengthening our organizations for the long haul.

I wrote this book as a message of encouragement for individuals who want to make their lives better.  This is a message about effectiveness without relying on false confidence…Effectiveness without sacrificing who you are in an ego-driven pursuit of short-term incentives.  The themes of this journey build upon and support each other: we establish a healthy mindset, which gives us the gift of discipline, which enables creation of positive long-term effects for ourselves, our families, and our organizations.

Joel Krech is a leader and risk manager in the banking industry, as well as a Commander and intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve. He has worked in a variety of industries, starting at a young age working in the family business. In the military, he has deployed to Kosovo, Iraq and Kuwait and led winning teams there and in the business world. He is student of story-telling and of long term effectiveness, and considers his most important successes to be the lasting positive impacts created by developing those around him. Joel and his wife Lindsey live in Minnesota with their two dogs.