Determining the Sustainability of Success
Building a foundation of skills to improve and sustain our performance.
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It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.
Sir Edmund Hillary
We all want “success” and we want it now.
Success means something different to each of us but as long as we’re chasing something worthwhile, pursuing success is a natural and healthy part of our lives.
However, a desire for success today instead of tomorrow can be problematic.
Like all great things, success has trade-offs. A lot of baggage comes along with being great, especially when that greatness comes on an accelerated timeline.
The same way technology has evolved faster than our brains, the consequences of accelerated success are thrust upon us faster than we can learn the skills to deal with them.
Different paths to success
In 2015, Jordan Spieth became the youngest golfer since 1923 to win the US Open, one of four coveted major championships in professional golf. The same year he also won the Masters, and two years later he won the Open Championship, adding two more major championships to his resume before he turned 25.
Since then he’s won a handful of smaller tournaments but has not maintained anything close to the success he reached in the meteoric rise of his early career. Spieth’s quick ascension to golf royalty may have done him more harm than good for his long-term performance.
Because he accomplished such a high level of success so quickly, he never faced the typical hardships that come from failure and struggle. Whenever he faces a challenge today, he lacks the skills to overcome it. Spieth frequently gets out to a lead early in tournaments and then lets it slip away as the tournament draws to a close.
Scottie Scheffler had a different path to success on the PGA tour. He worked his way up through the minor leagues to the PGA Tour, where he was solid but unremarkable for three years. In his fourth year, he broke through with four wins including the Masters. After two wins the following year, he dominated 2024 with eight victories, including the Masters, Tour Championship, and Olympics and he’s poised to have another dominant year in 2025.
Scheffler had years of hardship and doubt before his success to develop the skills needed to overcome the inevitable challenges of performing at the highest level.
In contrast to Spieth, Scheffler frequently gets out to a slow start in tournaments but catches up and passes the rest of the field as the tournament progresses.
Scheffler’s path to success on the PGA was much slower than Spieth’s, but it’s been more sustainable. Although he wasn’t collecting trophies early in his career he was collecting the skills that are the foundation of his success today which have propelled him further than Spieth and almost anyone else on the PGA tour.
Building a foundation
All this is not to say we should avoid accomplishments and turn down opportunities to succeed. Attempting to improve is human nature and the faster we can accomplish something important, the sooner we can move on to something even more meaningful and impactful.
However, when we accomplish something worthwhile on an accelerated timeline, we need to remind ourselves that we have extra work to do. When success comes quickly we get the outcome we want, but not the skills we need to sustain it.
To maintain that level of success and continue improving we need to intentionally develop the skills required to deal with hardship, doubt, and imposter syndrome.
If we don’t accomplish our idea of “success” as quickly as we want to, we shouldn’t be discouraged either. Although we’re not getting the outcome we want, we are developing the skills we’ll need to sustain our performance once we do.
Achieving our version of success is important, but the real work is building the foundation to sustain it and continue becoming a bit more each day.
Prompts
Have you ever experienced accelerated success? What were the consequences?
If you’re progressing slowly but steadily, what are you learning that will be valuable when you accomplish what you’re pursuing?
What can you do to ensure you learn the skills required to deal with success faster than you can achieve the success you’re pursuing?
Bonus Prompt: Will Scottie Scheffler win the Master’s again this year?
Deep Dive
Peak by Anders Ericsson & Robert Pool
A window into peak performance and strategies we can use to become exceptional.
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next Sunday.
Kevin