Success Trap
When past success prevents necessary adaptation and becomes an obstacle to future success.
Also known as: Competency trap, Success curse
Category: Concepts
Tags: successes, adaptation, changes, mindsets, strategies
Explanation
The success trap occurs when past success becomes an obstacle to future success. What worked before may not work now, but success creates: overconfidence in current approaches, resistance to change (why fix what isn't broken?), organizational routines that become rigid, and identity attachment to current methods. Companies like Kodak, Blockbuster, and Nokia fell into success traps - they dominated their industries until disruption made their strengths obsolete. At the individual level, success traps appear as: repeating the same career moves, applying outdated skills to new problems, and resting on reputation rather than continuing to grow. Escaping the success trap requires: separating identity from methods, maintaining beginner's mind, actively seeking disconfirming feedback, and building 'productive paranoia' about future relevance.
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