The Worst Trait?

“It’s a jungle out there. You gotta look out for number one, but don’t step in number two.”

rodney dangerfield

no joke. it’s a jungle out there. in the world, your country, your state, your city, your neighborhood, and in your living quarters, it’s a jungle.

the world, whether we like it or not, is filled with both animate and inanimate forces that work against us. as a professional, i have experienced this in the form of competition. others sought to take as their own parts of my practice. their efforts varied from from the legitimate- advertising- to the illegitimate-slander. this reality exposed that my work in building my reputation and knowledge required to be dynamic. to maintain my static level of success, i could not merely engage in a status quo business model. continual efforts to improve the practice was required.

“complacency”, from my experience, is perhaps to most dangerous trait someone can adopt. likewise, this trait has the ability to destroy one’s personal life. complacency is defined as “a feeling of smug or uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one’s achievements.”

the danger is that achievements in life, given the nature of the universe, are never static. while you may be proud of your degree in computer science, the year after your graduated college, thousands of others are likewise awarded this honor and may be hungrier than you to get employment or find success in independent programming. while you may be happy that you hit your targeted weight loss, you may wake up a month later, hop on the scale, and discover that you are five pounds heavier.

sometime, luck can be a trap as well. hitting a baseball on one’s first pitch of their first at bat, can distort one from the statistical reality of baseball; getting a hit once every three times can make you into a multi-millionaire. some success can negatively alter one’s perspective.

often, we get trapped in the belief that achievements and successes are entitlements to justify setting one’s life on cruise control. the reality is that business, relationships, and health require due diligence.

in sum, perhaps complacency is the “number two” that the comic great rodney dangerfield spoke of when he described the jungle. this brilliant observation was timely made the movie “back to school.” in the comedy, he starred as a successful businessman who took time to go back to college. it was in this setting that he, despite his past great achievements, worked hard to appreciate that he had the capacity to dedicate himself and succeed in an area foreign to him. in doing so, he inspired his son to have the courage to break out and be the best [mellon] that he could be.

be well!!

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