Success Breeds Complacency Quotes

Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.

Success Should Never Breed Complacency

Success breeds arrogance and complacency, he said. You only learn from your mistakes and when the worst happens.

Grove’s mantra was “Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.” Noyce and Moore may not have been paranoid, but they were never complacent.

Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure.

My friend Richard Carrion, the CEO of Puerto Rico’s top bank, once shared a line with me that I’ll never forget: “Robin, nothing fails like success.” Powerful thought. Your business is most vulnerable when it’s most successful. Success actually breeds complacency, inefficiency and – worst of all – arrogance. Whenever I share this point with a roomful of CEOs, every one of them nods their head at this one. Please let me give you a real-world example from my own life.

Discipline breeds courage and confidence, while complacency brings fear and doubt. If you want to conquer your fears, don't wait for the right time - make it happen now.

Optimism can be thought of as a cheery disposition to always look on the bright side of life, even despite the evidence. It is an attitude that can easily breed complacency and inaction. Hope, on the other hand, is a more active and radical ideal that recognizes the real possibility of failure, yet at the same time holds on to the prospect of success despite the odds, driven by a deep commitment to an outcome we value.

The number-one threat is us,” Herb Kelleher, the former CEO of Southwest Airlines, told his people at a big company meeting. “We must not let success breed complacency, cockiness, greediness, laziness, indifference, preoccupation with nonessentials; bureaucracy; hierarchy; quarrelsomeness; or obliviousness to threats posed by the outside world.”4