The Dangers of Unchecked Success

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The chapter explores the pitfalls of unrestricted success and how it can lead to distractions and a plateau in progress. It emphasizes the importance of managing success effectively to prevent complacency and the possibility of repeating past failures. Through examples like Kodak and a product manager's story at Apple, it highlights the necessity of unlearning and simplifying to adapt and thrive in changing environments.

Greg McKeown: Essentialism Greg McKeown is the author of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less*. His book is frequently listed as #1 Time Management book on Amazon and challenges the core assumptions about achievement to get to the essence of what really drives success. His writing has appeared in or been covered by The New York Times, Fast Company, Fortune, HuffPost, and many others. He is among the most popular bloggers for the Harvard Business Review and LinkedIn’s Influencers group: averaging a million views a month. In this conversation, Greg and I discuss why success can be such a poor teacher and how to avoid what Jim Collins calls, “The undisciplined pursuit of more.” We explore how the principles of journalism can help us arrive at what’s essential and why journaling may be the place to start. Key Points Being a journalist of your own life will force you to stop hyper-focusing on all the minor details and see the bigger picture. Success is a poor teacher and may lead to the undisciplined pursuit of more. Essentialists listen for what is not being explicitly stated. They read between the lines. Nonessentialists hear what is loud. Essentialists listen for the signal in the noise. Journaling is a useful practice to begin reviewing what is coming up in your life and discovering the leads you may be missing. Make time every 90 days to review and determine what’s next. Resources Mentioned Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less* by Greg McKeown Essentialism podcast Simple Productivity: How to Accomplish More With Less with Greg McKeown Book Notes Download my highlights from Essentialism in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes Getting Things Done, with David Allen (episode 184) How to Make Deep Work Happen, with Cal Newport (episode 233) Six Tactics for Extraordinary Performance, with Morten Hansen (episode 337) Finding Joy Through Intentional Choices, with Bonni Stachowiak (episode 417) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.