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Beware The Dangers Of Success
By: Mike Bolen

I wish that you all could have been with the company's senior management the past couple of months or so to listen to each of your business unit leaders go through the annual business planning process that leads up to the publishing of the Company's consolidated operating plan for 2005. You would have been very proud of every one of them. They were each able to separate the good from the not so good in 2004, and had solid plans for 2005 that leveraged the good, while focusing hard on improving the not so good.

I think I speak here for both Mike Hurst and George Scherer, when I say that by far the most impressive part of this year's planning process was the self confidence displayed by each of your leaders as they looked toward the future. Tons of careful thought had clearly gone into each of their plans to attack 2005 and beyond. Like I said before — you would have been very proud.

But that is not what this article is about. Yes, your Company is doing very well and appears to have not only survived, but thrived through that old Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.” Yes, the future looks brighter than we ever imagined five years ago. And yes, we think we are very well positioned to take full advantage of that bright future. So what's the problem?

The problem is that at times like these – check that, especially at times like these — it's really easy to take our eyes off the ball and forget something really important — Bad Things Happen. Some are completely beyond our control. Stuff like a sudden downturn in the economy, or another terrorist attack here in the U.S. We can have contingency plans and react, but we can't control whether or not they happen. Other Bad Things are ones that we can and should control, but for some reason don't. Specifically, I want to focus here on two of the most insidious, but controllable causes for Bad Things happening. Arrogance and his ugly cousin Complacency.

Think back to October 22, 2004. The mighty New York Yankees, with their $185 million payroll, have just gone up 3 to Zip against their old punching bag, the Boston Red Sox. One more win and they go to the World Series – again. No team in the history of professional baseball had ever blown a 3 – 0 lead in a playoff series. It was a dead lock cinch, and all the smart money was on the Yankees like the proverbial duck on a June bug. What could possibly go wrong? Well, if you are a Yankee fan, a really Bad Thing happened.

There's no doubt the Yankees were a great team in a great position. No doubt they were supremely self confident. Fabulously talented, they had all worked very hard, had tons of championship experience, and had a crystal clear vision of where they were going. Their self confidence was clearly justified, and absolutely required to compete successfully at the top level. All that was left to do was collect the ring.

But our good friend Self Confidence lives in a very dangerous extended family. In my opinion what happened to the Yankees is that on October 22, Self Confidence turned things over to his two ugly cousins Arrogance and Complacency, and that is why the Boston Red Sox are World Champions. And I'll also make you a little bet. I'll bet you that the Yankees never saw it coming, and are still wondering what the hell happened. Yep, old Arrogance and Complacency are very sneaky guys, and after October 22 the Red Sox had 11 players on the field.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't mean to scare you. And I know that I'm probably putting myself in danger of being called a Girlieman by Arnold the Governator. But just take a second and think about it. The New York Yankees are the most consistent and accomplished front runners in the history of sport — they more than anyone should know how to handle success. Bad Things happened to them anyway.

So Partners — as we move into 2005 and beyond, I'm asking each of us to stop and reflect every once in a while. Ask yourself three simple questions:

• Am I taking our success for granted?
• Am I underestimating the competition?
• Am I doing my part to deserve my Partner's trust?

The self confidence that each of us needs to compete at the highest level in a very tough business can be our biggest ally. But it's our individual responsibility to make sure that we don't let Self Confidence turn things over to one or both of his ugly cousins.

I hope everyone had a great holiday season and I'll see you throughout 2005.