How Do I Dissolve the Ego?

Why do we want to satisfy me first?  Why has man given so much importance to the ego?  We have meditations to try to get rid of it or calm it down, so why must we bow to our ego’s every whim?  Is it taught to us from childhood?  Has the ego become a habit?  When one feels there is no self there is nothing, so why do we spend endless amounts of energy trying to bring it under control? Those who don’t work on ego are afraid of becoming nothing.