So you want to be Successful?

To the victor go the spoils, but what if you haven't thought about what they really are?

Last Friday, on my social media pages, I asked which is harder to handle: success or failure?

There were some great answers and insights from both sides.

The reason I asked is that I think it needs more digging into.

My personal opinion years ago was- failure. Not even a question. Failing sucks. Losing, not performing, not getting an outcome after working hard, letting others down, and/or not getting an opportunity. Miserable. Also, I see it all the time in baseball with the number of failures that occur there. It’s brutal and wears on people over time.

But today, I want to talk about the challenges that success can bring.

Hard to handle success?

Most people who haven’t seen it or experienced it would, in a heartbeat, say, yeah give me that chance. You’re crazy to think it’d be harder than failure.

Maybe true, but it doesn’t change the fact that with success, things change.

It can be hard to navigate success because the bar has been raised, and that level becomes the new expectation. Every single time. Anything less than that is failure, and given the above, not many want to go through that. You’ve worked too hard to get to this point; you don’t want to fail.

People also want to see the best fall. Think about sports dynasties over time. They get exhausting if you’re not a fan of those teams. Watching the Patriots go to the Super Bowl every year (oh wait…) is something many fans don’t want to see and actually root against.

Heavy is the head that wears the crown.

And honestly, not everyone wants to wear that burden. They might say they do, but now the spotlight is firmly placed on you, all the time. If you’ve never gone through it, that can be extremely tough to handle.

There’s no right or wrong to the question of what’s harder to handle- success or failure. But I think it leads to some good discussion points.

It’s often overlooked in working with high performers that the journey can present challenges. I find that pre-educating them through questioning is most helpful.

• If you succeed, what do you think will be something that comes with it that you didn’t expect?

• What might be a potential burden that comes with being on top of your game?

• Why do you want to succeed? Understanding this part is helpful when the inevitable pitfalls come. Something to fall back on.

• How will you and others handle the potential additional attention?

• If you fail publicly, how will you respond?

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These questions are designed to prepare high performers not just for the good parts, but also the real parts. The things that often aren’t thought about or discussed.

Part of providing high-performance strategies is helping steer conversations toward what may be overlooked or not considered.

Today, I ask you to consider: When you succeed at whatever you’re doing, what’s something that you think could be a burden of that success? How will you handle it?

Wishing you all nothing but success!