If the Shoe Fits: Are You Sick?
by Miki SaxonA Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here
“The higher you go in life, the greater the capacity for self-delusion.” —George Mitchell
There’s a very contagious illness making the rounds and it reached pandemic proportions more than a decade ago.
To check if you have it take the simple quiz below.
In the privacy of your own mind how would you answer the following questions?
- Are you usually the smartest person in the room?
- Are you annoyed when someone doesn’t instantly “get it?”
- Do you listen equally well to all your people?
- Is your main networking criteria WIFM?
- Did you succeed because of others?
If you answered yes, yes, no, yes, no then you’re already sick.
If you considered the answers obvious you have a serious case of what Pat Riley calls the “disease of me,” while the startup world knows it as “founder’s ego.”
It means you not only do things better than others, but also can do no wrong.
While there is no inoculation against it, there is a cure.
The cure requires changing your MAP and it’s free.
Hat tip to Wally Bock for a great reminder on how easy (and stupid) it is to buy into your own infallibility.
Image credit: HikingArtist