The Success Delusion: Why It Can Be So Hard for Successful Leaders to Change

Any human, in fact, any animal will tend to repeat behavior that is followed by positive reinforcement. The more successful we become, the more positive reinforcement we get – and the more likely we are to experience the success delusion.

I behave this way. I am successful. Therefore, I must be successful because I behave this way. Wrong!

The higher we move up the organizational ladder, the more our employees let us know how wonderful we are! Our behavior is often followed by positive reinforcement, even when this behavior makes absolutely no sense. One night over dinner, I listened as a very wise military leader shared his learnings from years of experience with an eager, newly-minted General, “Recently, have you started to notice that when you tell jokes, everyone erupts into laughter - and that when you say something ‘wise’ everyone nods their heads in solemn agreement? The new General replied, “Why, yes, I have.” The older General laughed and continued, “Let me help you. You aren’t that funny, and you aren’t that smart! It’s only that star on your shoulder. Don’t ever let it go to your head.”

- Marshall Goldsmith

"I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid. You're afraid of us. You're afraid of change. I don't know the future. I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it's going to begin. I'm going to hang up this phone, and then I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world... without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries; a world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you."

- Neo, into the phone at the end of the first Matrix movie, before he flies away.

A golden rule in crisis communications: appropriate overreaction.

A mantra I've been hearing over the years:

underpromise and overdeliver

I am different from ordinary people. I drink from the Great Mother's breasts.

- from the Tao Te Ching

Saw this on a website, and I think the count is off a bit...

Krispy Kreme Expanding Into Thailand
302,837,616,408,595 people shared this.

Take the time to figure out your purpose in life. For those that do, it's very valuable. Otherwise later on you'll look back and wonder what you did with all the time.

Fines are a tax for doing bad. Taxes are a fine for doing well.

The Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service found that one-third of chicken sold in the U.S. as "natural" was pumped up with additives that boosted sodium content and weight.

You can have anything you want in life if you just help enough other people get what they want.

- Zig Ziglar

"Middle age is when your age starts to show around your middle."

- Bob Hope

If you look at paintings of the Last Supper which were painted over the last 1000 years, you'll notice that food portion size has been increasing.

I guess what was a meal back then is only considered a snack now.

According to a recent survey by The Conference Board, just 45 percent of workers are satisfied with their jobs, down significantly from 61 percent in 1987.

Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.

- Gail Godwin

I disagree with this. Theater is a component, but a bigger one is being present and connecting with everyone.

Tip for when you're going on a long drive alone -

If you have long hair trap some of it in the sun roof, so that if you start nodding away, you are woken up.

Note to reader:
This is a joke. If you follow this tip and get into an accident, you are not allowed to sue me...

The US tax code is 70,000 pages long.

Also on taxes:

"The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has."
- Will Rogers

Ancient Egyptians believed two questions determined whether or not they would be allowed to proceed on to the afterlife:

Did you find joy?
Did you bring joy?

You know you work in a creative business when you're having a business dinner in Brazil and a country-CEO from the region sitting at your table says that the dessert (fried banana with vanilla ice cream) looks like "Michael Jackson's p****, black & white."

Life is like a roll of toilet paper.

The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.

- unknown

Happiness tips for lawyers

Tip #1: Quit law.
Tip #2: Do what makes you happy.

- seen on abovethelaw.com