Most good marketers and copywriters have heard of Agora. It is an information publishing business that grosses more than $200 million a year, and that number may be dated.
But far fewer people have heard of William Bonner, the founder of Agora. He is also called Bill and Will, depending on where his name appears. Bill Bonner is, in my opinion, one of the sharpest minds in the world today. His writing is par excellence.
When I recently read Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets, his latest book with co-author Lila Rajiva, I underlined dozens of passages and nuggets of wisdom. One was this statement on page 254: “Nothing fails like success.”
This is classic Bonner: putting a unique spin on an old subject.
But what does it mean?
It means that success often leads to failure, especially if the foundations of the initial success have been built on fraud and deception. A dishonest man who succeeds is likely to believe in his own success. Then, in the pursuit of greater success, he is undone; he inevitably stumbles and falls.
It is like a bank robber who pulls off a stunning heist. He will be encouraged, and he will want more. So he sacks another bank, and another, but eventually his luck runs out. The police catch on to his methods and put him in the slammer. Hence, nothing fails like success.
Applying this to business, you might credit a certain strategy with recent growth. But causes and effects are often quite deceptive. They are often only correlations and not directly related at all. Nevertheless, we all want to believe in something. We all want to be told what to do, or at least know what to do. And so it is easy to believe in what we think is the cause for our success, even if that cause is no cause at all.
Another way to interpret Bonner’s quip is this: When you are number one, there is only one direction for you to go… down.
It’s nice to be number two.
If you are number two, you still have room to go up. But being number one is a vulnerable place to be. Everybody is gunning for you. How long before somebody usurps your position? Again, nothing fails like success.
We might also say this: Every success is destined for failure. It reminds me of how cocky people had become in the early 20th Century. They built the Titanic and boasted, “Not even God could sink this ship.” A word of wisdom: Do not test God like that. We all know how the story ends.
Nearly 100% of businesses fail in 10 years or less, no matter how successful they were during those years. Every world empire eventually collapses. Fiat currencies are almost as transient as wealth. And today’s millionaires are tomorrow’s paupers.
Recently I read somewhere that if you get on the first page of Google, it’s best to hover in spots 3-10. If you hit spots one or two, then everybody will begin analyzing your web site to see how they can knock you off and crown themselves “King of the Hill.”
So why do I share all this with you? Because it’s important to have the right priorities in business. Don’t focus on outcomes, like being #1 or grossing so many dollars a year. You don’t have any control over outcomes. If you measure success this way, you’ll be headed for disappointment sooner or later.
Better to focus on behaviors.
Focus on what you can control: what time you wake up in the morning, the daily activities you perform in your business, how you treat your customers, etc. Jim Camp says it this way…
“Chasing a performance goal over which you have no final control is a tragic waste of talent and energy.” (No, p. 49) Many other peak performance experts (like John Eliot, Ph.D.) will tell you the same thing.
Everything moves in cycles. Failure precedes success; success precedes failure. It is the natural rhythm of life. So instead of focusing on some numerical target or quota and calling that success, focus instead on you. Success happens right now, every single day you’re alive. What can you do today to be a success? What behaviors are good and right for you to be doing? Do those; everything else will fall into place.
Your thoughts? Do you agree or disagree? Leave a comment below.
-Ryan M. Healy
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7 comments ↓
Ryan,
I completely agree.
I experienced another example of this last night at my indoor soccer game. The game went most of the first half scoreless. Then we scored and we were ecstatic because the other team was ranked #1 and we were #2. They scored on the next possession less than 30 seconds later. Then they scored 3 more times. Finally their success caught up with them and we scored again. So the momentum shifted back to us and we ended up tying the game.
As a player, it’s better to focus on the current play and your next point. If you start thinking you’re winning, that’s when the other team makes a comeback. I wish I could have explained that to my teammates but half of them don’t speak English.
Louis
Ryan,
Nice, bringing Bill into the picture…he is a brilliant mind.
Each of the little actions you take today can have a big impact on your future success. Even if that little action was a little failure.
Bill Gates of Microsoft is famous for his initial run of failures and what course those failures put him on. Now, he is a 100 BILLION dollar man.
Joseph Ratliff
Author of The Profitable Business Edge 2
Louis - Thanks for the comment. Your soccer game is a good illustration. Obviously, the outcome of the game is important to you, but the only thing you can control is how you play the game.
Joseph - Yep. We are the result of every decision we’ve made since we were born. Crazy, huh?
Hey Ryan,
This reminds me of the 18th law from the book “The 22 Immutable Law of Marketing” by Al Riles & Jack Trout. The law is called The Law of Success. Success often leads to arrogance and arrogance to failure.
They state that when people become successful they lose their perspective. People start to believe their own press releases, and their ego gets out of control. Decisions are made based on their opinions ignoring what the customer wants.
Jack & Al actually quote Proverbs 16:18 (NIV) “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” I was surprised to see scripture quoted in a mainstream business book, but it describes it perfectly.
The ego tends to believe that success is because of the individual, or the brand. You start to get over confident, and believe you can do anything. What happens as a result is you start to lose focus. You spread yourself to thin, and weaken your effectiveness.
When in reality any success is based on the actions taken, and a combination of outside forces you cannot control. I like to repeat a quote an ex-boss of my wife use to say all the time: “I’d rather be lucky than good any day of the week.”
I think a lot of people have a hard time admitting that part of their success is being in the right place at the right time.
Keith
Keith - Thanks for the comment. I haven’t read that book in a few years; I’d forgotten about that chapter.
I just quoted that verse in Proverbs a few days ago in my post about The Heart of a Servant. I suppose this post is, in some ways, an extension of it.
You said: “I think a lot of people have a hard time admitting that part of their success is being in the right place at the right time.”
I totally agree.
Tiger Woods.
Here’s a guy, currently ranked two and a half times better than #2. (Phil Mickelson).
Why?
Sure, tremendous natural talent… but look at Tiger’s self-discipline and tremendous mental toughness.
Even if you hate golf, take a look at what this guy is doing… and analyze how he does it.
There’s probably no better current, high-profile example of success on display for us to study.
Yeah, when you’re Number 1, there’s no way to go but down…
Unless, you know you’re the best, but never rest on your accomplishments.
Most of us can’t deal with the paradox of confidence… the high of winning… vs. humility… putting in the work and effort to get better.
“Glory days well they’ll pass you by” Bruce Springsteen
Walt - Good point. I suppose there are no hard-and-fast rules about success and failure. Certainly, Tiger Woods is an example worth studying, and a rare one at that. He is one of the few (only?) famous people I can think of who hasn’t let fame go to his head.
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