When you are
good at something, you tend to show off. Most often, when people ask you to
share the success recipe, you extend an analytical response – simply attempted
at making the recipe complex. If you’ve noticed, the next moment onwards, that
analytical response starts playing in your mind and most often you fail to
repeat your success. The shift from an intuition based success to one based on
false analysis is pretty common. People who do this tend to add a swagger to
their walk.
I have noticed
that with a cricketer who has been in the limelight recently for the wrong
reasons.
Success attracts
skeptics. Indian Premier League has been
no different. However, the last few weeks that has seen some of cricketing
world's prominent personalities scurrying for legal cover seem to prove the
skeptics right. Why do these people with the potential of furthering their
success get themselves into such positions? Is there a lesson for others when
such people can go from an iconic status to irrelevant? Jim Collins' book, 'how the mighty
fall,' could perhaps provide some insights. As he writes, if companies such
as Motorola, Circuit City, and Fannie Mae — icons that once served as paragons
of excellence — can succumb to the forces of gravity, then no one is immune.
After all, it is individuals who run these companies.
Be it N.Srinivasan
who was at the helm of affairs in cricket in India or Sreesanth or Vindoo Dara
Singh - the common thread running through them is that they seem to have become
insulated by success. Jim Collin's calls it 'hubris born of success.' People
become arrogant, regard success virtually as an entitlement, and they lose
sight of the true underlying factors that created success in the first place. Further,
such an attitude leads to undisciplined pursuit of more—more growth, more
acclaim, more of whatever those in power see as "success." People
often stray from the disciplined creativity that led them to greatness in the
first place, making undisciplined leaps into areas where they cannot be great
or grow faster than they can achieve with excellence—or both.
So, what could
be the solution?
It is important
to learn to discount success and work incessantly to position one as stronger
and better-positioned, as each day passes.
