A CEO of Fortune 100 said that; “Success can lead to arrogance. When we are arrogant, we quit listening. When we quit listening, we stop changing. In today’s rapidly moving world, if we quit changing, we will ultimately fail.”

That is a negative side of success, arrogance. Arrogance arise when someone feel better in many things than other. A mental illness that will affect everybody, begin with arrogance, product, leaders, to an ordinary people. In this article we want to talk about the people.

A success people then arrogance, isn’t it a pity. Can you imagine, when they struggle to get a success, they are very open to learn. They want to listen; they want to sacrifice to live. Even live as an ordinary people. But, that is the past time. When the success came, they forgot or want forgotten about the past. May they said “I’ve able to get the best in my life.”

Now, “you must listen to me, and I do not need to listen to you.” That situation getting worse when the success people surrounded by the “Yes man”, that the Yes man doesn’t want to say about the weakness of their success friend. The success people will feel more “Super”, hypocrite and selfish. The success people like that been trapped by their success and they stop learning.

There is a businessman, he talk about how struggle he is in developing his business. The story is very stir up and heroic, when the first time he come to Jakarta (Indonesia) he must sleep under the bridge. He struggle for living in Jakarta and starting from zero.

He marriage with no any penny in his pocket, stayed at very worse and small rent house. But, he is not give up, he learn about how the success people working, he follow the way, he improvise and he began jump in to a production activity with his own modification of products. Now, he is business success, he has three big factories.

But then, the company has an internal problem, this situation comes up because of the leadership. The boss become arrogance and does not want to listen, arrogance and does not like any critics. “If I able to do, you also must able to do,” he said to his entire employee.

He also refused any new idea. And then, he runs his business only by his own feeling. The turn over of employee rise up. The rest is only the “yes man”. Later, he has an idea to train his employee, but actually he himself needed an updating manner by training.

Arrogance will comes to everybody, including a teacher, lecturer, or professor, that everyday sharing with other peoples.

From the above story, we will learn how to be more careful if one day we got a success to not make us arrogance and possibly self centered, and did not want to listen. The world knows about Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler, or Joseph Stalin. They all struggle from the bottom to the top of leadership. They struggle for they own people, very idealism. But then, they forgot something when they are success. They are become arrogance or anti-critics. They run the system with an iron-hand system. A victim arose from their hand.

What happen with the IBM? The big and famous, has happen droop the business when the arrogance coming to the leader level mind and attitude.

Trap of success

So, that is will happen if people stop learning and thinking “it is enough.” They are not realized that the others still learning, innovated and developing themselves. While you are stop and satisfied with your position. Slowly but sure the success you got will be obsolete and finish.

The competitor will go ahead and left you behind. You are trapped in your success, words, and your old style. Arrogance has closed your hearth and mind to be more creative to find a new style and new tips to keep and develop your success. This, the arrogance will be bring you to a trouble and destruct.

So, what are the tips to not make our success will not changes us to be arrogance?

1. Always aware with the behavior and attitude. Even you are success, you need time to recognize your attitude in the eyes of other persons. Be aware, is it your voice, words, and behavior will hurting others? Is it we take a respect to others? Especially the others who are support you to get a success like this time, are you take a respect to them? When you still poor you take a respect to the other, and then, when you get a success you threw away them. Do not do that!
2. Be careful with the feed back that only entertaining you but it not makes you to learn. Be careful with a people surround you that only say a good words, but they never give you a good input. Sometimes, we also needed a negative input for improvement, whatever we success.
3. Aware and sensitive with any chance that happen. In the book “Who Moved My Cheese” resuming that we must always smell our cheese, is it already rotten or taken by somebody. We also must smell and sensitive how the others developing themselves and to a threat for us. And, do not thinking that you are the best and forgot to learn.
4. Polite and humble to learn from the others.

We hope this article will inspire you to get a real success. Success that will did not make you to be arrogance. Last but not least, “Above the sky there is another sky”.