Sometimes Success Can Be Your Greatest Enemy

We’ve all heard the phrase  “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  But that, I fear, actually leads you to stagnation.  Thinking if it works, if we  we are successful, then clearly we don’t need to do anything differently or consider new ideas and thoughts.

Something that works should be a starting point, not the end.  You are not finished, but only on a journey and only if you are willing to think about how your success can be leveraged, how it can get even better, you may just find that in the not so far future, you are on the sidelines and what was working, no longer is.

Along with this, I find that organizations who nestle into their perceived success, often look backward instead of forward.  Conversations tend to always end up at last year, or 30 years ago.  I got my bachelor’s degree in history, so I understand both the value and the lure of the past, but I also know that it can be a trap.  We do it this way because that’s the way we always did it, and it works, so we are going to continue doing it.

Recently, a board member told me that he did not understand why the ED hired me to help upgrade their fundraising.  They had always been successful with wheat they did and even during Covid had managed to raise the same $1M they had for the past 10 years.

If I could have raised an eyebrow, I would have.  Raising what you raised 15 years ago is hardly success.  In 2012 the price of gas was about $3.60 a gallon.  A gallon of milk was $3.96.  Today, gas is well over $4.00 and here is Los Angeles it is closer to five dollars and milk is more than $4.30. Need I say more?  If you are where you were a decade ago, you are trailing behind.

This is one of the reasons term limits for board members is so attractive.  But, truthfully, I don’t think it should only be for board members.  I work pretty regularly with founders of organizations.  They are, almost without exception, bright, passionate, innovative people.  And most of them are stuck where they were when they founded the organization.  We’re still around, so why should we change anything?

Of course, founders are not the only culprits.  People often take a job or go on the board of an organization because they love the organization—what it does.  HOW it does it.  They, too, want to keep things are they are and as they were.

I’m not advocating change for the sake of change.  I am suggesting that being open to change allows you to see opportunities when (and sometimes before) they arise.  It’s always good to question if things are the very best they could be, or if, perhaps they could be better.  Better doesn’t mean that what you are, what you have, is bad.  It may all be perfectly wonderful.  But you owe it to your clients, your supporters, those who care about what you do to be open to the possibilities and to take advantage of what those possibilities offer.