I believe learning leadership, and most of all learning to lead ourselves well, will benefit you now and in the future. My personal desire is to help your life be better and more successful.
Below is an article I wrote some time ago. I think its content is relevant for us in the present.
#1 Success Killer: Don’t Do This...
I am not going to “beat around the bush,” making you read all the way to the end to find out what the #1 success killer is. I will give it to you right now because it is so important. If you read no further, at least you will have become aware of the biggest problem stealing the success out of your life.
The #1 Success Killer is pride.
Pride gets to all of us leaders, and it destroys.
Pride affects all of us in one way or another.
Pride won’t allow you to listen to your boss’s requests, so you lose your job.
Pride won’t allow you to admit mistakes, so your children grow up angry and unbalanced.
Pride won’t allow you to give in to the needs of your spouse, so you get divorced.
Pride won’t allow you to listen to new marketing or product ideas from your staff, so your business stops being profitable.
Shall I continue? If you know me... you know I will continue anyway, lol.
If I had to guess, I would say pride has contributed to almost all the outcomes you regret.
Pride is a strong emotion that arrests your being, shackles you in chains, and puts you in the dungeon of despair. I know how it feels; I have lived there too!
Pride has been a massive issue in my life, and it creeps up again and again. Many of you know that several years ago I sold a highly profitable ice sculpture business called Masterpiece Ice. It was the right thing to do. I thought that my next business would spring up fast and be successful right out of the gate. Well, in truth, it took a ton of work and still did not become highly successful.
Since money doesn’t grow on trees, there came a time when I had to get a part-time job to sustain life while trying to build the business. In theory, this would have been an easy task: put together a résumé and voilà, a job would appear. Well, at that time I had been happily self-employed for more than eight years. Going back to work for someone else was a huge pride issue.
I didn’t know how big my pride had gotten until I walked in for my first interview. I almost threw up!
When I got the job and went back for training, I was angry, almost threw up again, and just about told them to take a hike and walked out. Then I realized pride was killing me. I didn’t want to feel that way anymore, and neither do you.
What we both need to know here is that success is on the other side of pride.
Success is on the other side of pride!
What does pride do? It makes you fall.
I am sure you have heard, “Pride comes before the fall,” and it is true because:
Pride blinds. Pride binds. Pride grinds. Pride minds.
Pride blinds you from seeing solutions, effective strategies, and creative thoughts and ideas.
Pride binds you to the status quo and cements your “One Way” sign into the ground.
Pride grinds negativity into relationships, exiling collaboration—the heart of relationships.
Pride minds if someone has something to say to you about it.
So...
If you are blinded from seeing solutions, bound to travel one way, have negativity in relationships, and mind if someone has something to say about it, how much momentum and success do you expect to get?
Just in case your pride is in the way, I will answer for you.
NONE! Zero, zip, zilch, nada.
Pride, in my opinion, is the #1 Success Killer.
Has pride gotten to you?
Till next time,
Chef Jeff