Success, over time, can create foolishness.

I’m defining foolishness as the inability to see things accurately. It’s largely driven by self-centeredness.

Some of the most perplexing coaching and consulting situations I face are with very smart and successful leaders – who seem unable to stop making poor choices.

I don’t fully understand this. But what makes sense to me are two things:

First, Everyone Has Their “Stuff”

For most people, our “stuff” creates friction in life. It holds us back in some way.

But many very successful people learned to use their “stuff” to drive success. And because it produces success, they tend to minimize it or deny it altogether – assuming they recognize it in the first place.

Once success has been achieved, at any level, it becomes increasingly difficult to acknowledge “stuff”. Early on in a career, weaknesses or challenges were almost assumed. But as a leader builds strength, it’s easier to deny them – or reinterpret them as necessary ingredients for success.

Secondly, Leaders Get Trapped in the Trappings of Success

Many successful leaders start out wanting to achieve something noble. Or at least noble-ish. But upon discovering success, they discover it often comes with trappings – that become a trap.

Success, for leaders, includes some element of power, respect, influence, comfort, and/or increased resources. On the way to building success, there was often a need to grow, learn, ask for help, depend on others, and so on. But that decreases over time.

At a certain point, successful people can start to forget how to do those things – grow, learn, ask for help, and depend on others. They all require acknowledging weaknesses or mistakes. They all feel humble. None feel fun.

In the effort to protect their success, they forget the effective behaviors and mindsets that created it. They might cognitively remember them and be able to speak about them eloquently.

But they are often no longer a part of their lifestyle.

The Antidote

The foolishness of success grows from the germs of self-centeredness. We all wrestle with it.

Humility and other centeredness are the antidotes. But they are difficult to self-administer.

In my work with successful leaders who seem to be avoiding the foolishness of success, I’ve observed a few things:

• Many have failed significantly at some point. Perhaps several times. I believe these experiences anchored their awareness that failure was and still is a possibility. They don’t seem paranoid about this. But they don’t take success for granted. They still work at it.
• They are learners. They keep taking classes, developing new skills, taking on hobbies, and going to counseling. They are comfortable not being the smartest or most put-together person in the room.

What’s different about their approach is not that they are driven to master many things or become perfect.  But they are so aware of and curious about what they don’t yet know or have not yet achieved.

• They do difficult things. They don’t seek comfort. They push themselves. Many push themselves physically, taking on personal fitness or athletic challenges even into old age. They enter difficult conversations. They allow or even seek relational, emotional, spiritual, or financial challenges.
• They refuse to live life alone – they practice transparency. Successful leaders have fewer peers. They may limit how open they are because of concerns of stirring up jealousy. Or they may be afraid of showing weakness. Either way, it creates the “alone at the top” effect.

Successful leaders who avoid the foolishness trap actively cultivate peer relationships. They build connections and are open with people whom they look up to, whom they wouldn’t want to disappoint.

• They remain grounded in an other-centered purpose. Service to others drives them. They don’t allow this to become reversed and look to be served personally. They retain their true north and remind themselves of it regularly.

Conclusion

Are you still building or growing in your success? Now is the time to start applying the antidote. These behaviors will not only help you build success, but they’ll also protect you once you’ve found it.

Have you already achieved success? Don’t run the risk of being the last person to recognize that you are drifting into foolishness. Begin to practice the antidote behaviors.

Take good care,

Christian

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