There is a dark side of success, you know. In fact, here’s my opening salvo, my abstract, my thesis statement, if you will: The very traits that enable stellar achievements and great success are the exact same traits that simultaneously undermine self-control.
Says who, Pipsqueak? You?
Let me unpack that a bit as follows: the most naturally dynamic, intelligent, charismatic, effective and assertive people you know (or read about in Scripture) will be the ones who struggle the most with self-mastery. Their extreme competence, high success rates, and uncanny ability to escape consequences almost always lead to a lifestyle of confident impulsivity, relentless pursuit of novelty, indulgence in passions, and embrace of risk without fear of failure or consequences.
Why do you think the richest and most powerful people always seem to end up in the news for chasing thrills, misusing people, abusing substances, or committing some sexual crime? It’s because the same traits that got them to “the top” are the very same traits that bring them down to the bottom. You see how this works?
Go on…
This isn’t just a random “3 AM thought,” either. It’s demonstrably factual. To wit, Dr. Dacher Keltner from UC Berkeley coined the phrase “The Power Paradox” to describe a facet of what I’m writing about here.1 He said, “The Power Paradox is this: we rise in power and make a difference in the world due to what is best about human nature, but we fall from power due to what is worst.” He later said that “once people assume positions of power, they’re likely to act more selfishly, impulsively, and aggressively, and they have a harder time seeing the world from other people’s points of view. This presents us with the paradox of power: The skills most important to obtaining power and leading effectively are the very skills that deteriorate once we have power.”
But it’s not just Dr. Keltner, of course. In a paper written by Lord David Owen and Jonathan Davidson2, we read that “Charisma, charm, the ability to inspire, persuasiveness, breadth of vision, willingness to take risks, grandiose aspirations and bold self-confidence—these qualities are often associated with successful leadership. Yet there is another side to this profile, for these very same qualities can be marked by impetuosity, a refusal to listen to or take advice and a particular form of incompetence when impulsivity, recklessness and frequent inattention to detail predominate. This can result in disastrous leadership and cause damage on a large scale.” They called this dark side of success “Hubris Syndrome.”
Further, Dr. Anna Rose Childress of the University of Pennsylvania shows that this is a hard cycle to break, making the observation that cues associated with a reward (like seeing a picture of a cigarette for a smoker) can activate the limbic system and deactivate the prefrontal cortex, making relapse nearly and practically automatic. If that sounds needlessly science-y, then please keep reading.
Ok, so the shrinks agree, but is it true?
It’s not just the academics and psychologists coming up with this; no, it’s hard-wired into our brains. This might get a little nerdy, but hang in there.
It’s been said to think of your brain as having two competing systems: a primal “gas pedal” and a more rational set of “brakes.” The limbic system of the brain is the gas pedal, driven by the neurotransmitter dopamine. When a human being anticipates or experiences something rewarding, whether it be a business win, a risky payoff, praise, sex, or a drug, the limbic system floods with dopamine, creating feelings of desire, motivation, and pleasure. It’s addictive, to say the least.
The “brakes,” on the other hand, are found in the brain’s prefrontal cortex. This is the part of the brain responsible for balancing out the limbic system with rational decisions and restraints. It’s the “angel on the shoulder” as opposed to, you know, the other guy. The prefrontal cortex anticipates consequences and comeuppances while the limbic system just wants to go play. Remember “Goofus and Gallant” from those Highlights magazines back in the day? You get it.
Anyhow, you have been specifically designed by God to crave dopamine. And you have a built-in checks-and-balances system to make sure you don’t act like Lamech in the process. But where this plays into my argument is as follows: Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, has found that people who constantly chase the thrills (sex, drugs, power, you name it) have substantially fewer D2 dopamine receptors in their brains, which is directly linked to reduced activity in one’s prefrontal cortex.3 To quote the good doctor, “This decrease in D2 receptors is associated with a decrease in the activity of the orbitofrontal cortex and the cingulate gyrus, brain regions that are crucial for inhibiting urges and exerting self-control.”
In short — people who are successful because of the traits following my opening statement (dynamic, intelligent, charismatic, effective and assertive people; people who evade consequences and have high win rates) have a brain that is wired to drive them to success, and this same wiring will drive them off the cliff if they don’t give extra attention to self-mastery.
Ok, you’re probably right, but it doesn’t apply to me
Of course, there’s a certain type of person who reads cautions like this and says, “yes, this applies to others, but I’m the exception.” And you’re exactly the type of person I’m describing. Be careful — you can’t outrun consequences forever. You may play with fire more adeptly and adroitly than anyone else you know, but even you will eventually get burned. Badly. Irrevocably.
Because the bigger they are…
P.S. If you’re looking to read more about self-control, I’ve got another blog post about that here.
- https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/power_paradox ↩︎
- https://academic.oup.com/brain/article-abstract/132/5/1396/354862?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false ↩︎
- Volkow, N. D., Fowler, J. S., & Wang, G. J. (2003): “The addicted human brain: insights from imaging studies.” Journal of Clinical Investigation. A more recent and comprehensive review is Goldstein, R. Z., & Volkow, N. D. (2011): “Dysfunction of the prefrontal cortex in addiction: neuroimaging findings and clinical implications.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience. ↩︎
