“Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.”—Andy Grove
You don’t have to be paranoid to survive (i.e., evolve Spiritually and to grow Spiritually, Physically, Intellectually, Emotionally, and Socially). You simply have to a growth mindset.
It is interesting to consider that “success breeds complacency” but failure breeds growth and success. Failure is not always the result of complacency. Yes. Allowing success to get to one’s head or allowing success to create rigidity does breed complacency—because failing to take risks leads to not taking risks and not challenging oneself. I disagree, to an extent, with Andy Grove. Complacency cannot breed failure, because it involves no risk of failure.
Failure is an essential stimulus for growth. The “overload principle” from exercise science applies to SPIES—for a body system (or a dimension of well-centered fitness) to adapt, it must be challenged to a level greater than that to which it is accustomed. In challenging oneself, failure is inevitable—it is essential if one is to grow. Failure is essential for continued success.
Failing to fail is complacency. Once we begin to “play it safe” and rest on the laurels of our success, we stop growing—we stagnate. If we are not growing, we are dying.
Success should not breed complacency. Rather, it should breed a greater hunger for challenge and growth.
“I have high expectations for myself – as an athlete, as a man, as an individual – and wrestling has helped me build a lot of character knowing that I have to remain humble but also fight complacency.”—Jordan Burroughs
Be your best today; be better tomorrow.
Carpe momento!!