Success is suspicious

Today's Life Lessons

Success is suspicious

BUSINESS MATTERS (BEYOND THE BOTTOM LINE) 

By Francis J. Kong (The Philippine Star) 

Updated February 18, 2012 

Is it important to be successful in your career? You’re probably thinking, “What kind of a question is that? Of course it’s important!”

I’ve spent practically my entire life challenging people to be successful, to be the best they could ever be. I’ve written articles about it, spoken in seminars on it, appeared in TV shows to talk about it… Heck, I even have a book entitled, Being the Best You Can Ever Be.

People have emailed me and messaged me through Facebook thanking me for how my messages and seminars have helped them achieve success. Some of them are clients who have successfully risen up the corporate ladder and who have listened to me as college students. I welcome the encouragements, and I appreciate all the kind words. Then I got thinking about the other side of success.

Success could be very dangerous. With all the attention, the praise, the power and the money that come with it, success is a heavy responsibility to bear. You need skills and a lot of discipline to handle it. Those who can’t bear the pressure self-destruct.

Success can also be a license to defy rules that otherwise applies universally. When you are successful, you stand out as exceptional. People look up to you with great admiration (and some look at you with great envy). You become a rare corporate asset. Your bosses just can’t stop patting you on the back. And your company’s competitors keep knocking at your door inviting you to join them. Here’s where the danger lies: Because you are so “exceptional”, you become convinced that rules don’t apply to you, and so you tend to break them.

David F. D’Alessandro warns in Career Warfare that unless you are very careful, your achievements will nudge you into a kind of bubble that distorts your judgments, and make you very arrogant and careless.  

D’Alessandro offers six rules to live by to keep a healthy perspective on your success:

1. Be skeptical of your own genius.

2. Surround yourself with equally skeptical people.

3. Keep friends who remind you of your humanity. (I am so blessed I have The Ilocana – my wife – to do 

this for me.

4. Have some sympathy for your victims.

5. Develop interests other than golf.

6. Remember who feeds your family – your customers and shareholders.

These are all words of wisdom. Allow me to include a few more suggestions.

Always remember what the best book on business, the Bible, has to say about pride: “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Do not be arrogant. Be humble.

And keep in mind this most sobering thought: It is God who has given you the ability to achieve, and you are not Him!

Let me close with a beautiful story:

A victorious Roman general returned home to Rome, and was given a hero’s welcome and a triumphant parade of victory. A philosopher was hired to ride beside him in the victory parade. As the victor acknowledged the cheers of the crowd, the philosopher kept whispering in his ear, “You are mortal… You are mortal… You are mortal…”