The Greatest Threat To Success Is Success

 

Behind every success story – be it individual, career, entrepreneurial or corporate – is a remarkable story of dedication, resilience, yeoman effort and even a bit of luck. Success is never bequeathed by aspiration, but it is almost always achieved as a result of continuous concerted effort. 

There is no better feeling than the feeling of success achieved after a long, hard, honest effort. In a way, achieving success, in any form, is your way of making history. However, it’s important to recognize that achieving the desired success is not the end of the road, but only a sign that you are on the right road. 

The funny thing about success is that as difficult as it is to achieve, it takes even more focus and commitment to sustain it. Success is not self-sustaining. Success is only preserved by building on it, not resting on it. In fact, success has its own way of weakening the very behavior that created it. The key to preserving and even enhancing success is by being alerted to the potential of losing it. 

More People Rise From Failure Than Survive Success 

It’s a fact that more people rise from failure than survive success. That’s because it is more difficult to survive success than failure. Success is a rare commodity that few are prepared to deal with once it is realized. When you are successful, you step out from the crowd and accomplish what many talk about, but few do. That is all well and good, but when you do succeed, you have to deal with the consequences of success. That means those who – against all odds – achieved the success they sought, must always be vigilant against its loss.

 

How Success is Lost

 

Why is it that so many successful individuals and companies manage to fail the test of long-term success so consistently? Some say changed markets are to blame. Others point to increased competition, technological advances, reduced productivity, product obsolescence, even government interference as the trigger for the loss of success. But these are superficial excuses that highlight only the symptoms of the real failure. 

 

Eliminating the suicidal acts of greed, blatant fraud and inbred incompetence from the list of culprits, there is a simple explanation for the failure of successful individuals and companies. Successful leaders and companies start to fail when they stop doing the things they did that made them successful in the first place. 

Too often, individuals who have achieved remarkable levels of success for themselves and their companies become comfortable, lazy, complacent and less tolerant of change, risk and innovation. Many fall prey to the illness of entitlement. They lose the very culture that produced their initial success: Doing the right thing at the right time, and doing it first, fast and often.

How to Recognize and Resist the Risk to Success

Fortunately, there are some simple and obvious clues that will help identify when we and our company may be in danger of losing the success we worked so hard to achieve. 

Some of these signs may be when:

 

·       We find we are too busy to take the time to do the little things we took the time to do in the past.

·       We begin to define our success predicated on what we have done rather than what we could do.

·       We begin to feel that getting better is not as important as keeping what we have.

·       When our actions formerly threatened competitors, but now the actions of competitors threaten us.

·       We become more concerned with what we get for ourselves than what can be shared with others.

·       We begin to view process and procedure as more important than performance and progress.  

And the Moral of the Story … 

Never lose sight of this one thought – If you are not making history – you are history!   

Those who maintain a pattern of continued success have a common trait – they see success as something to build on – not rest on. For them success becomes a nagging voice that reminds them of how difficult it was to achieve and how much will be lost unless they continue to do the things that allowed them to come out one top, again and again. 

 

They have a mind-set to continue to make history. They recognize the responsibility they have to build on the success achieved. They know their past efforts have allowed them to make history in the past and that gives them the opportunity to make history in the future.

 

If, when you achieve success, you adopt this philosophy, then you will accomplish what many who have realized success fail to do. You will create the opportunity to maintain and even grow your success by never forgetting to do what you did to achieve success.

 

                                                          ###

Bob MacDonald – Former CEO of ITT Life, founder of LifeUSA, retired chairman and CEO of Allianz Life of North America, author of numerous books on business, management and leadership. Bobmac5201@gmail.com