A few months ago, I was listening to a podcast episode whilst preparing dinner. The host, Tom, was talking to Irwin Winkler, a well-renowned film producer and director. Though the whole conversation was interesting, one dialogue caught me off guard when Tom asked,

“What has 50 years in the business taught you about life?”

Irwin’s response (edited for clarity):

“That you can have great successes, you can have terrible failures, and both are really the same. You can never let the successes make you think that you’re better than anybody else and the same thing about your failures. You shouldn’t think that your failures make you any less of a person than the next. You are who you are. You have to pursue your goals the way you have always pursued them, through success and failures, and if you keep trying, you are going to have some failures. You’re also going to have some successes. When you give up, you’re going to have neither. And that itself is failure.”

Irwin’s idea of the dangers of success was fascinating to me: that praise or success might lead to something akin to arrogance, which may actually cause one to stumble and stop doing the things which brought them success in the first place. For instance, a sprinter who has just won a big race may begin to internalise, “Wow, look at me! I’m so fast – nobody can match me.” After this, that champion sprinter might skip workouts, throw out their diet and stay up late, disrupting their sleeping routine. If so, I would be surprised if this athlete could perform at the same level in the next race. Success, when left unchecked, has the potential to become a negative feedback loop.

Perhaps that example may have been a bit extreme, but I’ve personally been guilty of this in my studies recently, whereby my laziness and reliance on ‘intellect’ to cram and learn things quickly has gotten me into trouble this semester. What I really should’ve done was to remember how I previously studied – with slow deliberation and spaced repetition – and to build on these principles.

This idea of being wary of praise and success is applicable to many different areas. In my faith, it means not to be complacent about being saved by grace. In my running, it means not to stop training after a big PB. In my relationships, it means not to stop investing effort into them when things feel smooth. That in all things, when I succeed or someone compliments me, to not let it get to my head.