Hubris Born of Success

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.