The Chains of Success

Beware the chains of success, for they will ensnare you with your knowledge and agreement.

We are often wary of the dangers of failure, avoiding it with great effort.  Sure, we know that we learn from our mistakes, but they are still to be avoided at all costs.  Better to have constant success - right ?

I hope we all see that we have to fail, and fail often, to continue to grow.  I saw something wonderful written by Samuel Beckett today.. "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."  Let that thought simmer in your mind for a moment - read it once more, slowly. Like the first sip of a fine wine, it has after-taste and resonance.

Much has been written about the value of failure by far smarter people than me.  But I think at times we aren't warned enough about the danger of success.  Achievement of success means we stop breaking new ground, we stop taking risks and we become comfortable.  We don't want to rock the boat or spoil the success we have attained.  How do we find ourselves in this predicament ?  We do some of the worst things we can do - we reward ourselves for success achieved and often in a disproportionate way.  We buy expensive toys or houses.  We let the monetary side of success seduce us.  Our new relationship with success makes our lives more comfortable, and that feels... good.  A little like rich chocolate as a treat, except that the treat is frequently longer term, and addicting. We get fat on success.

As time goes by, we want the success to continue; in fact we need it to continue to maintain our newly established lifestyle.  Everything in our consumer society drives this point home.  The result is that we aren't taking new risks with our work, our art, or passions.   We know from experience early-on, risk and success don't go together - wisdom filled mistakes taught us this.  So we become derivative in our work, our art and passions.  We settle for this and justify our specialization to ourselves as sensible, all the while not admitting to ourselves that we sold-out to the new house, or expensive toys, the lifestyle enabled and we grew very little.

So beware the chains of success for we invite them, and shackle ourselves with their luxury.  But chains, even gold-plated ones are still chains and they hold us back from our own potential.