Companies on a clear upward trajectory can still fail not from external threats, but from complacency of the people running and operating the company. This happens when they mistakenly believe success is assured, but empirically this is not true (plenty of examples of industry darlings getting big and going under).
Complacency is made worse when new people join merely to have a seat on a rocket ship. They exhibit less of the qualities of what built the rocket ship in the first place and causes those that did to also be lulled into complacency (argumentum ad populum).
See also:
- COVID-19 has shown how complacency can have a direct impact on the spread of a deadly virus
- Growing startups are a microcosm of an economy and we can extrapolate the complacency from once fast growing companies to trends in the economy of stagnation and decline
Links to this note
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The Most Effective People Care a Lot
Those who care a great deal are the most effective people in any pursuit. It’s difficult to imagine the opposite being true, someone who doesn’t really care about what they are doing being the most effective at their job. Caring is a low-level characteristic that is difficult (or impossible) to fake and does not have any preconditions (caring seems to be a behavioral default not everyone has). It has a large impact on the quality of work and depth of contribution (effectiveness).