One day, I heard an interview with Harvey Mackay, the best-selling author of several books on business. The interviewer asked: “Mr. Mackay, we see all these business start-ups, everything is going so well, they are in the local press, and success seems to be theirs for the taking. But then, within a few years, you often hear that the company went bust. Why is that? What changes such success into failure?”
Harvey Mackay answered: “There are only three things that account for that kind of turn in fortune: arrogance, arrogance, and arrogance.”
While Mackay overstated the case a bit, his point is right on. Arrogance is one of the four deadly sins that lead to small business failure. Failure emanates from arrogance through blindness and the willfulness that can energize the other three temptations. Arrogance can also be the most subtle of these temptations, and is one that must be overcome and challenged by the conscious entrepreneur. Fail to confront the arrogance that naturally arises from business success, and you doom your business to failure.
