The Trouble with Success

Success is the ultimate goal for many people. Most of us crave it, several of us seek it, and many of us actually achieve it, at least to a certain degree. But can past success be detrimental to additional success in the future? Can it prevent you from being a better person? Can it keep you from getting to where you actually want to go? In other words, can a little success be a roadblock to the “ultimate” success? In the highly acclaimed book What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful, author Marshall Goldsmith argues that indeed, success, or at least what he calls the delusion of success, can create resistance to change and therefore prevent you from achieving improvements in you life. We will further explore this topic in this article to help you achieve your ultimate success.

Goldsmith may have a point. We have all heard stories of people that achieved a certain degree of success and then stopped. They become complacent. They are unable to achieve further growth. It happens to athletes, it happens to companies, it can happen to everyday people.

Goldsmith explains that this lack of growth can be blamed on delusions of success. He argues that in the workplace we tend to overestimate our contributions, and we may have an unrealistic opinion of our skills and standings among our peers. Some people may even take credit for the successes of others. He also says we ignore our failures and discount the costs built into projects, overestimating our projects impact to the bottom line. This, according to him, creates a delusion of success, and this delusion becomes a liability when change is needed.

Goldsmith suggests that successful people go into denial and do not believe criticisms apply to them – otherwise they wouldn’t be successful. The idea is that these people have positive interpretations of their past performance and believe that their success will naturally continue in the future. This gives them a sense of control over their destiny that turns into a belief system that is very resistant to change.

Here are the four key beliefs of successful people according to Goldsmith:

1. I Have Succeeded

Successful people look at the past through rose-colored glasses. They believe in their past successes to the point where it becomes a roadblock to behavioral change.

2. I Can Succeed

Successful people also have a strong belief that they are capable of making good things happen. Whether it is done through skills, intelligence, or brute force, successful people have a strong belief that they can drive any situation in a direction that is favorable to them.

3. I Will Succeed

Successful people are optimistic by nature, and sometimes they become too optimistic – this may explain why they are so busy, extending themselves and becoming over committed. This overcommitment is often used as an excuse for not making behavioral changes even when the change is recognized as needed.

4. I Want to Succeed

Successful people believe that they are doing what they are doing because they choose to do so. And it just so happens that the more you believe that your behavior is the result of your own choices and commitments, the less likely you are to want to change your behavior.

All of these beliefs of successful people have served them well in getting to the level of success they have achieved. However, they can also get in the way of these people recognizing and accepting the need for change that could lead to even higher levels of success.

Goldsmith states that in order for change to occur, successful people have to recognize that making changes will serve their own best interests as defined by their own values. In other words, in order to achieve a higher level of success, people that are already successful need to accept that only by changing the behavior that got them here (the current level of success) they will get there (the higher level of success).

The lesson here is that if you are a middle manager looking to become an upper manager, doing what you have done to become a successful middle manager will not get you there. If you are small league star, you will have to do things differently to play in the majors. If you are truly committed to reaching your full potential, you need to be open to change and not rely on your past successes alone.