Success Story – Part 2: (Mis) Steps to Success

Lisa

Sequencing: Cycles & Seasons of Life

26 May 2015

The Key to Your Success Story

I am never… the Smartest-Person-in-the-Room.

If ever, I thought I was… I would run to the next room.

We become a much better version of ourselves if we choose to be around the bright and brilliant of the world.

Throughout my life, I have had the distinct privilege of knowing the crème de la crème of business people.

Just being in their presence afforded me invaluable business knowledge.

Allow me to share some of this wisdom with you today.

Here are 3 common obstacles we manufacture to avoid dealing with success.

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Success Story – Part 2: (Mis) Steps to Success

The Fear of Success

I distinctly remember being asked to lunch with a Baker Scholar (High Distinction given to the top 5% of graduates at Harvard Business School). Over a sandwich in a nondescript diner, this scholar gave me some of the best life advice.

He warned me that the Fear of Success is much stronger and more powerful than the Fear of Failure.

Why?

Because we are inundated with so many opportunities to familiarize ourselves with failure, it becomes the norm.

But when the big stuff happens. The Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity comes knocking. The proverbial ships comes into our port….

We are simply not ready.

This accomplished man sitting across the table confided…that the scariest night of his life was when he realized that Success was waiting for him in the morning.

A sleepless night. An uneasy night. A night full of… the Fear of Success.

An Unworthy Self-Image

Back in the good ole’ days when corporate conference rooms boasted obnoxiously oversized mahogany inlaid tables situated on top of Persian rugs, I was a naïve and green-as-a-gourd Vice President of Business Development sharing this opulent room with a most refined lady.

Despite her beauty and sophistication, this broken woman offered her life story of how she lost her mansion, her mate and her millions.

How? Why?

She felt it was only a matter of time for the clock to strike midnight. And those horses would turn back into mice and her ball gown would disintegrate into rags.

When her success arrived, she felt like a fake and a fraud waiting to be discovered. She did not feel worthy.

She subconsciously pushed all of her wealth and worth back to the source trying to give it to her. She simply refused to accept it.

The Feeling of Guilt

Okay. I’ve saved the worse for last.

Remember that Harvard graduate?

He shared another piece of life advice.

With a slight hint of embarrassment, he disclosed that he tried to sabotage his early days of success because he did not want to become more successful than his father. He felt like it was, in some strange way, disgraceful and disrespectful to his father’s legacy.

It burdened him to feel that he was ‘showing up his dad’. It was only after he came to the realization that his late father would have been enormously proud of him and would have celebrated his success – that he mentally gave himself permission to reach his potential.

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By listing these psychological obstacles today….I hope you will never have to deal with them on your journey.

There is, yet, another self-inflicted bump in the road…..but it deserves an entire post.

Stay tuned for Success Story – Part 3 in the future.

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During the long drive home last week….

I remembered how I was blessed to be surrounded by smart and wise people early in my life.

I remembered this man who taught me so much in such a short period of time.

These lessons are just too good to keep to myself.

I had to send it your way.

You, the Reader, are the reason I began this blog in March.

I want to share good information and powerful lessons.