When success invites relaxation
There is an assumption many leaders carry without examining it: when things are going well, we can relax. Revenue is up, momentum is strong, and energy feels aligned. The effort feels earned, even deserved. It’s a moment that appears to confirm competence and direction.
What I’ve come to see, through years of working with founders and reinforced again in a recent conversation on my podcast, is that this moment deserves more attention, not less. Not because success is unstable, but because leadership attention often shifts precisely when external conditions improve.
What caught my attention in this conversation
In my conversation with Jason Clark, what stood out was not the extremity of his early experiences—bankruptcy, instability, rebuilding from nothing. It was how he oriented himself once things began to work.
Jason had worked himself out of a situation that looked like rock bottom. His work was not only external—rebuilding financially, stabilizing professionally—but internal as well. He recognized that what he experienced was a pattern.
Once he saw that, he stopped treating improvement as resolution. Success no longer meant arrival; it signaled the other side of a cycle he now knew would return.
Because of that awareness, Jason became highly attentive to repetition. When conditions improved, he didn’t consume the momentum. He prepared while things were working. Not out of fear, but out of recognition. He had already seen what happens when momentum is mistaken for permanence. You are heading for the next inevitable crash.
Naming the pattern: polarity in action
As Jason spoke, I recognized something I had rarely encountered articulated so clearly in practice. Jason never named it this way, but what he was describing is the law of polarity.
Polarity describes a structural reality: if something exists on one side, the other side exists as well.
- The more a system scales, the more its weaknesses are revealed.
- What works at one level creates pressure at the next.
- Stability increases obligation, not freedom.
Jason planned for both sides of the cycle because he had experienced both sides —internally and externally—and understood they would repeat. Just not when.
That is what made this conversation so valuable. It was the first time I encountered someone who didn’t just understand cycles intellectually, but actively designed for either side of them.
Most leaders are trained to prepare for growth. Far fewer are trained to prepare during growth.
When success persists, discipline softens. Questions feel less urgent. Decisions receive less scrutiny. Confidence gradually shifts into assumption of market superiority. None of this happens abruptly. It happens incrementally, as attention drifts toward maintaining the narrative that things are working.
This is where leadership is tested. Not in crisis but when things are going well. Not because of where you are but where you are going next. Nobody dominates the market forever. All great ideas eventually become obsolete.
Polarity doesn’t arrive as a correction. It is already present. The only variable is whether leaders are planning for it while conditions are favorable.
Discipline when it feels unnecessary
Jason also tells the story of how he chose discipline early—financially, operationally, relationally. He described saving when revenue was strong, diversifying when client relationships felt secure, and planning for downturns while confidence was high.
These decisions may not feel necessary at the moment and that’s precisely why they matter.
Discipline applied after conditions change carries cost. Discipline applied beforehand creates margin. Jason did not avoid risk. He respected cycles.
Leadership between the highs and the lows
Leaders who remain attentive during expansion—who stay measured, observant, and internally grounded—do not scramble when conditions shift. They adjust. Not because they predicted the future, but because they prepared for variability rather than permanence.
When attention drifts, strategy weakens
Success, if left unchecked, narrows attention. Teams sense the change. Decisions subtly shift. Risk tolerance increases without being named. Dependencies deepen.
What assumptions feel safe because conditions are favorable? What preparations feel inconvenient because they interrupt the story?
These questions do not surface automatically. They require conscious engagement.
Growth that lasts is built on awareness
The leaders who build enduring organizations are not the most optimistic. They are the most aware—aware of themselves, aware of cycles, and aware that stability is not a permanent state but a temporary condition accompanied by responsibility.
That awareness does not limit growth. It protects it.
A closing thought
When conditions are difficult, leadership calls for endurance. When conditions are favorable, leadership calls for restraint. Both require presence. Both require discipline. Both require respect for forces larger than personal will.
Growth does not fail because leaders lack ambition. It fails when success is treated as entitlement rather than responsibility.
That perspective is not fear-based. It is mature. And it is what allows success to compound instead of collapse.
If this reflection resonates—especially if things are currently going well—an Uncovery Session may be the right next step. Not to solve a problem, but to prepare for what follows momentum.
Let’s grow,
Beate
