The Danger of Success


It seems oxymoronic to warn of the danger of success. Most people think that success is a noble aim, a worthy goal, with no possibility of peril. However, there is a subtle trap when a person succeeds at his station in life. Rick Warren, the senior pastor of Saddleback Church, admonished, "The greatest enemy of tomorrow’s success is today’s success." The reason is that once a person succeeds, it is extremely easy for him to become complacent.
Complacency is a state of mind adopted by an individual who becomes smug about his achievements. He assumes that what he has accomplished, he has done through raw talent. Unfortunately, once a person adopts this mentality, he exhibits the quality of lethargy and exerts no additional energy to achieve anything else of significance. His work stagnates, and as a result of his apathy, other people, who are more diligent, will leave him in the dust.
This attitude of complacency is unfortunate. Success never results, expect in rare circumstances, from the pure genius of a person. In normal situations, success requires an extraordinary amount of persistence. Maltbie Babcock insightfully writes, "One of the most common mistakes and one of the costliest is thinking that success is due to some genius, some magic something.... Success is generally due to holding on and failure to let go."

Thus, be careful in your pursuit of success. Nothing is inherently wrong with being successful, whether you aspire to be an effective teacher, a masterful orator, or a persuasive politician. Just remember to not allow complacency to rob you of future successes. Jettison the deleterious mindset of complacency and replace it with a recognition that, in the words of Seth Godin, "Every great company, every great brand, and every great career has been built in exactly the same way: bit by bit, step by step, little by little."

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