On Arrogance and Success

Arrogance is the destroyer of all things creative, innovative, and good. It blinds us to both the mistakes we are making and the opportunities we are missing. This is by no means a new thought. The concept of hubris is older then most other parts of our culture. Why then, are arrogance and business success linked so strongly in our society?  When a CEO like Elon Musk goes off about how clearly superior he is, we all roll our eyes and phrases like "well you can't argue with success" get passed around. We all seem to have been conditioned somehow to accept that success and arrogance are linked.

I would like to propose an alternate theory: Arrogance is counterproductive to success and instead, we are victims of an optical illusion that makes the fictional link between the two seem intuitive.



The illusion
Let me start with the optical illusion. The illusion we are all victim too is a product of our exposure to successful people. In our daily lives we are exposed to truly run-away successful people in only a few ways: through the news media, through the outlets of successful people's companies, and through books / medias that are made about them. The illusion is created because all of these pathways are biased towards arrogance. Thus, we observers see the illusion that all successful people are arrogant and the link is intuitive.

Here is an analogy. Which is more dangerous: a tornado or a car? This is a very loaded question, so let me phrase it in a more straight forward way. In what situation do you think you are in more danger: when the tornado sirens go off and you must go down to your basement? Or when you get into your car to drive to the grocery store? For me, my heart-rate goes up much more when the sirens go off and I troop into the basement. But, it turns out that every time you have an interaction with a car it is more likely to lead to your death then when you have an interaction with a tornado siren. That is to say, you are safer when you are in a tornado warning then when you are driving. Sounds insane right?

This is the same type of optical illusion that we have about arrogant people and success. The pathway by which we hear about tornadoes, the news media, is highly biased. Every fatal tornado is reported, but only a few of the fatal car accidents are reported. This is because a fatal tornado is much more exciting, loud, and, in general, makes for much better television.

Arrogant people are the same. We never see a mild mannered person speak about uncertainty and the tough slog of creating a business. We see self-proclaimed brilliant people talking about how they knew it all along. This bias persists in all the pathways by which we are exposed to successful people because arrogance is exciting, loud, and, in general, makes for much better television.

The reality
In reality, the picture is completely the opposite. Behind the ultra successful businesses of the past 50 years there are not a powerful group of arrogant self-righteous leaders. This is only our perception. To be clear, this is not a theory I am proposing, it is a fact I am reporting.

If you have read anything like Built To Last, Good to Great, or The Innovators Dillema, you know that the leaders of the highest growth, most successful companies of the past 50 years were mild mannered, self effacing, inclusive, and self critical. Just like the dangers of driving a car, when you actually look at the numbers the trend is very clear.

So what is the solution? It is highly unlikely that we will ever change the pathways or the presence of arrogant individuals. Instead, it is probably far more impactful to focus our efforts on ourselves. Talk less, think more, and try to show a little empathy. And at the very least, don't let comments like "you can't argue with success" stand unchallenged.