Pitfalls of Success

The Success Trap
Few businesses are able to avoid the “success ruins everything” syndrome… lose sight of their quality and performance standards in the push to grow quickly. Some companies respond to success by resting on their laurels and ceasing to innovate. The complacency that often comes with success provides a window of opportunity for underdogs and upstarts.

And it’s not just companies that suffer from success. So, too, do personal relationships. When a group achieves great success, it can split apart with jealousy as individuals each seek credit and a disproportionate share of the resources from their collective accomplishments.

“When you’re climbing up the mountain, that’s when you really need each other. Then, when you get near the top, it’s over.”

… maintaining focus and discipline in the face of success is difficult.

- Jeffrey Pfeffer, professor of organizational behavior at Stanford

Nothing Fails Like Success

Richard Carrion, the CEO of Puerto Rico’s top bank, once shared a line with me that I’ll never forget: “Robin, nothing fails like success.” Powerful thought. You, as well as your organization, are most vulnerable when you are most successful. Success actually breeds complacency, inefficiency and worst of all, arrogance. When people and businesses get really successful, they often fall in love with themselves. They stop innovating, working hard, taking risks and begin to rest on their laurels. They go on the defensive, spending their energy protecting their success rather than staying true to the very things that got them to the top.

- Robin Sharma, 'The Greatness Guide'

History is filled with instances of these pitfalls trapping individuals, companies, societies, countries and civilizations. Zeniths of success give way to an inevitable decline. The reasons are mostly internal and sometimes external. The internal reasons are complacency and arrogance that success breeds. The external reason is the circumstances that cause the success changing with time.

- RKP