A lot of successful people like thinking they are invincible. They cannot lose, cannot come up with a bad idea.
But, what if you are wrong about a certain course of action? How deep in would you go before your realise the error? And when you do, would your ego make you stubbornly continue the pursuit despite all clear evidence?
When you are wrong, do you have people that can tell you so? Or, are you just surrounded by a band of yes men who merely nod in agreement without offering any conflict or playing devil’s advocate?
As you climb higher and higher the success ladder, hubris increases and you start feeling so invincible that everything fades away. By the time you wake up, even your own successes would have also faded away. History is littered with examples of things like this.
For example, Amazon’s Fire Phone experiment failed due to something like this. They had recorded so much success with their other devices like the Kindle line, that they felt they could easily make a phone. (They have since bounced back with the Amazon Echo device)
A little fear and second guessing yourself could just be a blessing (as long as it doesn’t grind the work to a halt).
Adding a little fear to the mix does not break the deal.
