Success narrows your options; the article shows how mastering a niche can trap you and offers practical ways to keep optionality through curiosity, experimentation, and role shifts.
Success feels like freedom until it squeezes your choices. The article uses a diner waiter versus a Michelin-starred waiter to show how mastering a narrow craft can turn power into a cage. When you become the expert, the range of roles you can move into shrinks, and the comfort of optimization replaces the urge to experiment. The piece ties this personal paradox to the organizational "success trap," a state where firms double down on what works and stop exploring new opportunities. It cites Kodak's refusal to cannibalize its film business and Clayton Christensen's Innovator's Dilemma as cautionary tales, illustrating how even brilliant companies can be blinded by their own mastery. To avoid the trap, leaders are urged to build deliberate discomfort: take roles that stretch you, allocate protected time for hack weeks, keep multiple professional identities, and reward learning velocity over pure output. By treating success as a platform for the next reinvention rather than a finish line, teams stay agile, innovative, and resilient.
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