RULE TO BREAK

“Believe you’re the best”

In one of my previous incarnations I worked with small businesses. I saw lots of businesses thrive and grow, and inevitably I saw plenty fail too. Often you can predict perfectly well who will succeed and who won’t.^* One thing I found was a pretty good indicator of failure was companies that always dissed their competitors. They were arrogantly convinced that the competition was hopeless, and consequently it always caught them quite off-guard when their competitors ran off with all their customers.

It’s not only businesses that fall prey to this attitude. Some people believe they’re the best when they simply aren’t. Whether you’re convinced you’re fantastic at your job, or a great parent, or the top student, or a brilliant sportsperson, it’s a dangerous attitude.

I’m all for being positive, and for building your self-esteem, but not at the expense of honesty. You have to be truthful with yourself about how good you are. Anyone who is genuinely brilliant at their job will always be looking for ways to get even better – that’s one of the requirements for job brilliance – and therefore will accept that they’re not perfect. It’s always dangerous to give yourself 10 out of 10. Even Usain Bolt is forever trying to shave a few milliseconds off his running time, so I guess he’d give himself just under 10 out of 10. He doesn’t strike me as being under-confident or negative in the least – just realistic. He’s the best, but he’s open to the possibility that he could be better still.

The fact is that as soon as you believe you’re the greatest, you become complacent. You stop looking for ways to get even better. Why would you, if you’re already at the top of the pile? But in order to improve you need a clear understanding of where you are, combined with a clear vision of where you want to be. Only then can you draw up a realistic plan to get yourself from here to there. If you think you’re already there, you’ve got no chance.

So big yourself up by all means. Tell yourself how good you are and give yourself brownie points, pats on the back and metaphorical gold stars. Just don’t believe your own hype so readily that you lose sight of the truth, because that’s a sure-fire route to failure.