Bruno's Web Tip

Bruno Gideon is a regular columnist for the SCCC website. Bruno will share some of his wisdom with our readers by giving useful tips for everyday life and practical advice for today’s entrepreneurs.

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The Risk in Success!

HISTORY SHOWS THAT THERE ARE NO INVINCIBLE ARMIES. – JOSEPH STALIN

Someone you know is successful. Most of his decisions were bang-on and he’s on a winning streak. He has also made some mistakes (who doesn’t?) but he learned his lessons, corrected them, and moved on. Now he’s on the way to the top. Am I talking about you? Maybe the “tomorrow you”? But when I say success, I don’t mean success in business alone, but also in your personal life, your studies and your relationship. So what is the risk in success? Why do so many successful people eventually fail? Because they develop a feeling of invincibility and lose touch with reality. But reality doesn’t lose touch with them!

Think of the success pyramid. You start at the bottom and work your way up. It is an easy way to picture that the way to the top requires a lot of hard work and we all know that. Now let’s go one step further. The big risk of being “lonely at the top” is that you are hypnotized by your success, are no longer grounded and – most important – become allergic to any sort of critique and that is when mistakes rear their head.

The present crisis in the banking system proves my point. Spending $200,000 to renovate a bathroom, exclusively travelling in private planes, paying half a million dollars for a seminar – all these and many more lavish acts show us that the big boys at the head of the banks were out of touch with reality and that is the main reason for their downfall and our current economic disaster. Talk about costly mistakes!

Are you at the top and enjoying it? Good for you and I wish you all the best. But please stay well grounded. You don’t want to risk your success!