Does Comfort Breed Complacency?
Last week my friend Jaclyn wrote a tweet that said: Is it possible for ambitious people to be comfortable?
That short sentence really got me thinking… Do ambitious people become satisfied? And if they do, how does that affect their work habit? Do things ever slow down?
At this point, I feel like most of what I’m doing is out of dissatisfaction. It stems from not being content with where things are at…
Don’t let that confuse you. Because dissatisfaction isn’t equivalent to unhappiness. I’m a really happy guy. But that doesn’t mean I want things to stay where they are.
I brought this up to my buddy. He’s young and financially free. When he started his company, he said it was out of dissatisfaction… but that paradigm has shifted from ‘working hard out of dissatisfaction’ to ‘working hard to make a difference in other’s lives’.
Does that shift come from him being financially free?
It’s easy to say, “I don’t care if you don’t buy my product because it won’t change my lifestyle. I’m just trying to help you out.”
And if (when) you hit that financial freedom point, how would (does) your life change? Do you work as hard? Stay up as late?
Or re-focus your priorities?
Just a late night thought…
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8 Responses
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Ambitious people are always going to be ambitious, it’s just their nature. But, being ambitious doesn’t mean they are dissatisfied, more-so they have set goals that they are working towards. I would argue that ambitious people do become satisfied when they reach their goals, but they then set new goals to keep themselves going/productive. Thus, accomplishing goals and reassessing life is what makes an ambitious person happy.
I don’t think comfort necessarily breeds complacency. Sometimes the people who are comfortable in the market are the only ones willing to innovate. And Innovation takes a lot of hard work no matter how comfortable you are. I think this especially holds true in a “down” market.
But complacency is such a personal feeling that I’m sure its causes are as varied as its symptoms.
People who chase the horizon always gain ground but never catch it. There’s always a higher goal for those types, i think. They don’t ever feel comfortable, no matter how stable they may be.
Yes! Comfort does breed complacency! To stay ahead of the game you must constantly be changing and innovating. You must be uncomfortable with your current offerings.
RIM got comfortable with their blackberry. Now they are answering to the iPhone. Which, is NOT a completely revolutionary idea. It was simply what people wanted.
Circuit City got comfortable. Now they are out of business and Best Buy’s geek squad had everything to do with it. (I still dislike Best Buy though)
I learned a lot from this post. Looking forward to more…
“I hated my old job so I started a company,” doesn’t make for a very good marketing pitch. I think the best businesses are ones where you feel that you are genuinely helping people. That’s why I started an ecommerce store for ergonomics. Ironically, people are also more interested in buying when they feel that you have their best interests at heart.
In general people have two different kinds of goals. “Away from” and “toward” goals. It’s more important to be headed towards something than it is to be headed away from something.
High performance individuals constantly have “toward” goal they are working on. One of my favorite quotes is, “If you are very good at what you are doing, you are probably doing the wrong thing.”
@DMisnotboring - When do they relax?
@eschapp - I feel like discomfort creates innovation… When you have limited budget/resources/time etc, it forces you to be creative in how you use them
@Steph - Continually chasing the horizon is kind of a scary thought.
@Justin - I’m kind of sure I agree with you
@photowallstickers - What an insightful comment!
@Brian - I really liked your point about moving “away from” or moving “towards” something. That’s an interesting concept. Who do you think gets comfortable easier? The people moving towards something or the people moving away from something?
Andy, I haven’t been good about checking my RSS feeds lately and I just saw this post. Thanks so much for linking me, and I am glad that I provided some food for thought. These comments are also so interesting. I’ve had a number of conversations since I first tweeted that thought. For the most part, I think ambitious people are always setting the bar higher. It keeps life interesting, is exciting, and generally I think it’s a good thing. But I think there is a risk of unhappiness. I guess your 20s are a good time to learn to manage this personality trait and keep it in check!