Hello, my friends. Welcome to the Rhine League podcast. I consider it a privilege that you would take just a few moments out of your week to listen to me talk into a microphone. Like, I really don't take that for granted. So thank you for being here today. This podcast, if you are unfamiliar with it, is a podcast that is designed to be short and sweet. We want to give you just a nugget of inspiration, something to think about, something to chew on this week that we believe is going to add value to your life. If you didn't know, I started a podcast series. It kind of made that up last week on success. I'm around success a lot. I've been experiencing a little bit of it myself over the past year at a higher level than normal. And I decided I wanted to take a few episodes to talk to you about some different components of success that I think can, one, help you be more successful. And number two, I hope you to be able to steward it well. So last week, we actually talked about the cost of success. What does it cost to be you? If you see somebody you admire, you should ask the question, what does it cost to be you today? I want to dive into the dangers of success. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Success can be fun. Success can be rewarding. But I also believe that there can be some dangers in success if we're not careful, because most of us, of course, we want to be successful. I've never met anybody that says, no, I'm good on success. I don't want any. It's like, no, I think most people would like some form of success. Not everybody wants to be famous, but they think everybody would like some success. For sure. It might look like more followers, more influence, more income, more impact. For some, maybe it's starting a business. For others, it's climbing the ladder of success in their organization. For some, it is becoming a household name. For some, it's building enough generational wealth so your kids don't have to start from scratch. I get it. Whatever it is, success can sound like freedom. Success can sound like peace. Success can sound like you made it and you can do whatever you want. But I will tell you this, having been around some Fortune 100 companies and their leaders, having been around some professional athletes and the NFL and the NBA, having been around some multi-millionaires, I'll tell you this, there are some real dangers that just come along with success. Yeah, I can just tell you people are quick to raise their hand and say, hey, I'll write a book or I'll give a talk or I'll do a real or I'll hop on a podcast and do an interview to tell you how to be successful. But if they could be really honest, I have to wonder if they would go, hey, before you try to become successful, here are some things you want to watch out for. Here are some things I wish somebody would have told me. In fact, I'm not even sure that you really even want to be successful is what some of my friends would tell you. Some of my friends would tell you, hey, average is not nearly as expensive. Yeah, yeah, yeah, average is way more safe. So stay where you are. Trust me, more money, more problems is what a lot of my friends would tell you. And so regardless of where you are in your journey of success, what I've done just in my observations of navigating a little bit of success in my own life and being around it quite a bit over the last year, I've just jotted down five things, five things that I want you to be aware of. These are going to be in the show notes. I don't feel like you have to take exact notes from this. Just five things that I just think, man, there's some dangers of success. And number one is this. Success can put you on cruise control. Yeah, yeah, success can put you on autopilot. Yeah, success can put you in this mode where you are just going through the motions because you don't have to grind. Because when you were grinding, you were focused. You were disciplined. You were hungry. Once you get successful, once you've hit your goals, once you've built something that's working, well, the temptation is that you take the foot off the gas. And the scariest part is it's not an intentional decision. You don't wake up one day and go, you know, I think I'm lazy today. Now, what happens is you subtly just start coasting because the urgency that got you where you are is now a distant memory. And so success can actually trick you into thinking that growth is optional. But comfort, comfort is a subtle killer. And cruise control is a dangerous setting for your purpose. So number one, yes, success. I believe it can put you on cruise control. Number two, success can make you stop listening to others. Yeah, yeah, yeah, here's the deal. When you're losing, you'll take advice from anybody. You'll take it from everywhere. When you're winning, well, now you assume that you're the expert in the room. So you stop seeking out feedback. You stop inviting dissent. You build a team around you, but only listen to the people who echo your own voice. And it's not because you're arrogant. It's because you've now got receipts. You've got some wins. You've got data that says your way works. But here's the thing. Again, I'm just going to caution you. Success doesn't mean you've outgrown growth. And just because the numbers are good doesn't mean the habits underneath them are. You see, success can give you a rationale that it's okay to stay the same. Yeah, you can use success as your favorite excuse. Why change what's working? Why rethink the process when we're already winning every piece of negative feedback that you get when you're successful has an asterisk next to it. You get defensive when you get successful because your track record is solid. But feedback isn't always about fixing what's broken. It's often about making the decisions to be one of those people that says, hey, today I'm going to get better. If you need a failure to grow, you'll be waiting for one. But real leaders, they grow in victory, especially in victory. People that really want to be successful, they say, hey, you know what? Usually I realize that I've made something, but I don't want to stop listening to people. Just because I'm winning, well, no, now is the time to lean in and go, man, how can I get better even though I've been winning? So number one, success can put you on cruise control. Number two, success can make you stop listening to others. And number three, success can lead to isolation. Oh yeah, big time because you can start believing the lie that you don't need people. You think your time is too valuable. So you outsource your relationships and surround yourself with people who, well, benefit from your success, but they don't actually know you. Slowly your inner circle becomes smaller and then it becomes silent. Until one day you look up and realize you're the only voice in your world. A success was never meant to be a solo sport, but isolation, it can convince you that it is. And the higher you climb, the harder it is to admit that you feel alone. Number four, the fourth danger of success today. Success can make you afraid to take risks. Success can make you afraid to take risks. When you had nothing, you tried everything. Now you've got something to lose and that something is precious. So instead of bold moves, you play it safe. So instead of pioneering, you start protecting. You build the dream, then you spend all your energy trying not to break it. But here's the truth in the irony, I would say. The same risk it took to get you there is the same risk it will take for you to go further. Success shouldn't make you safer. It should make you wiser. And the calculated risk is how you keep growing. So no matter how much success you've attained in your life up to this point, if you really want to take it to another level, you're still going to have to take some risks. And I don't want you to start playing it safe because you got some wind. The last danger of success, by the way, this isn't a book. There's probably more than five dangers of success. Let's throw that out. These are just the five you're getting today in this very short podcast. Number five, success can create relational tension. Success can create relational tension. Let's keep it real. If you talk to almost any highly successful person, somewhere in their story, there is a moment, a crossroads, where they had to choose between their success and a relationship that mattered most. And I'm just telling you, I got quite a few successful friends who unfortunately ended up in a divorce. And I'm not judging them. I'm not judging what happened. I'm not even assuming what happened. But I will say this. Before you get there, you should talk about it. Before you get there, you should, again, you should start counting the costs. You should start having some of these conversations before they're not in the room to have the conversation with you at all. And I'll just tell you, this hits home for my wife and I because we are navigating success. And parenting six and 10 year old. And let me just tell you, I have no secret sauce to offer you in this regard. We're at the half time point with our 10 year old. We got about eight more years with him in our house. And we're starting the second quarter with our six year old. And so it is a daily conversation in our house about making sure that I'm not going somewhere in life. That I'm not becoming this successful person without the people that I love the most. It's a daily conversation. And I would even say it's a daily tangent that we have to consistently navigate it. And so there's zero judgment for how anyone has handled it in the past. But what I want to encourage you to do is to be open to the public. What I want you to do is to be open and honest enough, engaging in some of these conversations early before you're having to make some tougher decisions and some tougher conversations. When you think about success, I want you to have it. But I want you to have it in the right areas. I want to encourage you to normalize being known at home, not just admired online. I would encourage you to normalize choosing presence over productivity. And that one's hard for me. So hard for me. I wake up with a to-do list. I wake up with a to-do list on Saturday and Sunday mornings when I'm not working. And I have to choose presence over productivity. And historically, I've not always made that choice. I think you and I should normalize protecting our peace, not just our brand. I think we should normalize being proud of who we're becoming, not just what we're achieving. I think we should normalize calling friends just to check in, not just when we need something. Not just when we need something. I think we should normalize defining success not just by what we've built, but by who's still around to celebrate it with us. I think we should normalize slowing down, not because we're failing, but because we're finally paying attention. My friend, I would hate for you to get any more success in your life and somehow still be losing in the areas that matter the most. These are just a few of the dangers of success. And my friend, I think success is a beautiful thing. But what you need to know about it is it's not harmless. So while you're going after it, I just don't want you to lose the parts of yourself that mattered before it arrived. I'm going to encourage you to stay grounded. I'm also going to encourage you to stay growing. I'm going to encourage you to stay grateful. And don't let success change you into someone you never intended to become. My friends, thank you so much for listening to the Reignly podcast today. It's today's episode at a value to your life. I would ask that you don't keep it to yourself and that you would share it with a friend. And hey, it would mean the world to me if you would take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. I also send out an encouraging text every single week. If you'd like to subscribe to those text messages, you can text the word podcast at the number 469-809-1201. And you'll start getting some encouraging text messages from me. Join us next week as we look at another component of success.
