Matthew Syed
Bounce – Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham and the Science of Success , (p. 142), HarperCollins, 2010
Enron recruited big talent, mostly people with fancy degrees, which is not in itself bad. It paid them big money, which is not terrible. But by putting complete faith in talent, Enron did a fatal thing; it created a culture that worshipped talent, thereby forcing its employees to look and act extraordinarily talented.

Basically, it forced them into the fixed mindset. And we know a lot about that. We know that people with the fixed mindset do not admit and correct their deficiencies.

Ezekiel 28:4-8
The Message
Look, you think you’re smarter than Daniel.
No enigmas can stump you.
Your sharp intelligence
made you world-wealthy.
You piled up gold and silver
in your banks.
You used your head well,
worked good deals, made a lot of money.
But the money has gone to your head,
swelled your head—what a big head!

“‘Therefore, God, the Master, says:

“‘Because you’re acting like a god,
pretending to be a god,
I’m giving fair warning: I’m bringing strangers down on you,
the most vicious of all nations.
They’ll pull their swords and make hash
of your reputation for knowing it all.
They’ll puncture the balloon
of your god-pretensions.
They’ll bring you down from your self-made pedestal
and bury you in the deep blue sea.

Admiral Bill Owens with Ed Offley
Lifting the Fog of War , (p. 20), The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000
Historians tend to focus on the reasons for success. Their fascination is with victory, and although a lot has been written about why losses occur, most historical tracts address the reasons that one side won. Winners, after all, write the histories. Yet it’s interesting and important to think about military failures – particularly when we are flush with victory … There seems to be a common historical thread running through many of the greatest military losses. Those losses in great part stem from an arrogance that begets ignorance – an ignorance of facts and developments that others are quicker to see.

… there are common causes for military disasters, and at the heart of them lie dangerous smugness, institutional constraints on innovation, and the tendency to avoid questioning conventional wisdom. And the side that is the most smug, the most convinced that its interpretation of the past is the best guide for the future, often turns out to be the loser in the next war.

Proverbs 16:18
The New International Version
Pride goes before destruction,
a haughty spirit before a fall.

Robert J. Herbold
Seduced by Success – How the Best Companies Survive the 9 Traps of Winning, (p. 35-36), McGraw-Hill, 2007
Success, and the resulting tendency to become complacent, often leads organizations and individuals to believe that they are very talented, have figured things out, have the answers to all the questions, and no longer need to get their hands dirty in the trenches. They lose their sense of urgency – the feeling that trouble might be just around the corner … The leader of a group really sets the tone of this cultural complacency issue. The tendency is to become very proud of your success and protective of the approaches that got you there. It is those very tendencies that lead to insular, confident culture that makes people believe that they are on the winning team, while in reality, the world is probably passing them by.

Obadiah 1:2-4
The Message
Listen to this, Edom:
I’m turning you to a no-account,
the runt of the godless nations, despised.
You thought you were so great,
perched high among the rocks, king of the mountain,
Thinking to yourself,
‘Nobody can get to me! Nobody can touch me!’
Think again. Even if, like an eagle,
you hang out on a high cliff-face,
Even if you build your nest in the stars,
I’ll bring you down to earth.

Yep. They would go into a squeeze shoot. Someone would take a pair of very large loppers and cut off their relatively small horns—which would squirt blood for a while. The stumps would be treated so no infection would set in and then the bulls were let go, kicking and hollering. Quite a spectacle for a young lad.

Did you know that God himself cuts off horns? “I will cut off the horns of all the wicked, but the horns of the righteous will be lifted up” (Psalm 75:10).

Horns in the scriptures are an indication of strength. So God’s direct admonition to the boastful and wicked  is “Do not lift up your horns” (verses 4 and 5)—don’t boast in your own strength and lord it over others out of strength.

It is comforting to hear God say, “I choose the appointed time; it is I who judge uprightly” (verse 2). We (at least I) like to hear that others are going to get their due at the proper time.

Whenever I catch myself saying that I tend to get a bit puffed up, like I know something the wicked don’t know. That is not a good sign. My heart really doesn’t desire to see the wicked repent; just their recompense. That’s pretty ugly.

But this statement in verses 2 and 3 is God speaking: “I choose the appointed time; it is I who judge uprightly. When the earth and all its people quake, it is I who hold its pillars firm.”  God has the authority to declare both His character and His deeds.

I’m quick to want others to be judged and for myself to be exalted. “But it is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another ” (verse 7).

Oops. The verse doesn’t saying anything about using this to my advantage. These words aren’t for someone else, but for me! I’m the one who is not to boast. I’m not to use strength to my advantage and the disadvantage of others. God can and does put me down. If there is any exalting to be done it will be done by the will of the Ultimate Judge, not because I’ve earned it. The qualifier is righteousness (verse 10), so my only hope is found, not in myself, but in God who “made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

♪My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.♪

We give thanks to you, O God, we give thanks, for your Name is near; men tell of your wonderful deeds. You say, “I choose the appointed time; it is I who judge uprightly. When the earth and all its people quake, it is I who hold its pillars firm. Selah To the arrogant I say, ‘Boast no more,’ and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horns. Do not lift your horns against heaven; do not speak with outstretched neck.’”  No one from the east or the west or from the desert can exalt a man. But it is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another. In the hand of the LORD is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices; he pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs. As for me, I will declare this forever; I will sing praise to the God of Jacob. I will cut off the horns of all the wicked, but the horns of the righteous will be lifted up.
— Psalm 75

Howard Morrison is a partner in Arizona’s Morrison Ranch. He resides with his family in Austin, Texas.

Take me, for instance. Because I still resembled a high-schooler in my twenties and was often mistaken for an intern, I obsessed over getting  the business hotshots I interacted with to view me as a peer. So I devoured books like Nice Girls Don’t Get The Corner Office and adopted a series of comical measures to appear wiser and more credible: wearing glasses when I didn’t need them, getting a grandma-type haircut, lowering my voice pitch and mastering body language, which included “power postures” and fighting a hair twirling habit.

While personal presentation does matter, it took me a while to realize that my character and spiritual growth were far better business investments. Which reminds me of that whole “you know a tree by its fruit” bit in the Scriptures:

By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
— Matthew 7:16-18

Jim Gleason, one of my mentors, is known to harp tirelessly on the importance of integrity. And he’s right to do so, considering “a good name is more desirable than good riches” (Proverbs 22:1). Jim says you and I can easily set ourselves apart, earn people’s respect and loyalty if we do this one thing: Keep our word. (On that note, if Jim tells you he’ll call on Tuesday, you can bank on it, even if he has to call from a hospital room–which he’s done before.) Jim takes seriously the biblical directive: “let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no’” (James 5:12).

Since I’m still far from perfect (and, I’m guessing, so are you), it’s important to note that God doesn’t expect perfection from us. But he does expect progression. In Hebrews 5:11-14 we read that “though by this time [we] ought to be teachers,” many of us are still stuck on the elementary teachings of Christ. Rather, we are told to move from God’s “milk” to “solid food,” which “is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves.”

As I’ve learned where my true value lies—that is, in fulfilling God’s purpose for my life and advancing his truth–I’ve quit worrying about what people think so much, except when it comes to how I reflect and represent the God I serve and love. As we fix our eyes on him, there’s no need to worry about a reputation. He’ll do a much better job of handling that for us.

Once a frustrated corporate minion, Andrea Emerson writes about the unconventional principles that thrust her into a fulfilling career (and straight up the chain of command) at espressoshots.com. This is Andrea’s first contribution to InsideWork.

David Brandon, Chairman & CEO of Domino’s Pizza
Making Strategy Work-Straight Talk from the World’s Top Business Leaders (p. 20-22), Harvard Business School Publishing, 2008

For many years as a private company, Domino’s really benchmarked against itself, without looking at the outside world. We were proud of the fact that for many years we had positive same-store sales, which is a big financial indicator of growth and success in the retail world. Well, that was the good news.

The bad news was that during those same years our competitors were growing at a faster rate. We were actually giving up market share. At the same time, we were hosting internal celebrations of the fact that against our own internal matrix we were doing well. We not only had to look at what had been our past results and reconcile how we were performing against that benchmark, but also we needed to look at the world around us, look at our competitors, and in many instances I really wanted us to look at the very best in class. Who is out there doing the best possible job in this particular area of business? We need to find out what their results are and start to hold ourselves accountable for that particular level of performance.

We accept mediocrity because we can choose a lot of people around us who are just as mediocre as we are. I want to find the very, very best, and I want to benchmark against them, and I want to get as good or better. I think if I lead that expectation and I get my team and my organization to embrace it, that’s how we’re going to become world-class performers.

Romans 3:23
The New International Version

…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…

There is a great deal of (understandable) handwringing about the still emerging financial crisis — much of it from people of faith, some of whom sound ready to hunker down and protect their assets by any means necessary, while others speak as if we are facing the end of days.

Quite a few years ago there was another reckless, greedy and self-absorbed culture obsessed with consumption, accumulation and personal exaltation . . . while turning a blind eye to justice, righteousness and those suffering. The parallels from the prophet Isaiah haunt me in these days. Like Israel, we — my country, the church, and each of us as we conform to the prevailing culture — have squandered tremendous blessing.

Isaiah 4 (my adaptation)

I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard. My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.

What more could I have done for my vineyard? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.

Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.

CONDO PYRAMIDING IN NAPLES, TEAR DOWNS IN PALO ALTO, VERSAILLES ARCHITECTURAL REPLICATION IN GREENWICH, ZERO EQUITY LIAR LOANS, $25 MILLION HAMPTON BEACH COTTAGES . . .

[The Lord] looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

1.2 MILLION UNBORN LIVES PER YEAR TERMINATED (40 million since 1973); POVERTY, SICKNESS, OPPRESSION HERE AND EVERYWHERE . . . RICHEST NATION IN THE WORLD POPLULATED WITH MANY BLIND EYES . . .

The Lord Almighty has declared in my hearing: “Surely the great houses will become desolate, the fine mansions left without occupants. A ten acre vineyard will produce only a bath of wine, a homer of seed and only an ephah of grain.

Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night until they are inflamed with wine. They have harps and lyres at their banquets, tambourines and flutes and wine, but they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord, no respect for the works of his hands.

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS STAYS IN VEGAS (pretty much sums up American culture circa 2009 — unbridled personal gratification trumps all)

Therefore the grave enlarges its appetite and opens its mouth without limit. So man will be brought low and mankind humbled. The eyes of the arrogant will be humbled.

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their sight.

CDOs SQUARED, 20X LEVERED HEDGE FUNDS WITH MANAGERS EARNING $500 MILLION/YEAR, BEAR STEARNS, LEHMAN BROTHERS, COUNTRYWIDE, et. al.

Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks.

$2,000/BOTTLE NAPA CULT CAB RELEASES, $500 TASTING MENUS, 20,000 SQUARE FOOT WINE CAVES (probably the ultimate real and metaphorical symbol of self indulgence . . . literally pissed away one hour later)

Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down into flames, their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty.
________________

May the Lord who condescends to reason with us turn our scarlet sin white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). May the Lord who sweeps our offenses away like a cloud, our sins like the morning mist (Isaiah 44:22), have mercy on our country, the church and each of us.

May we first examine our own hearts, minds and lives before assigning blame elsewhere.

Let us respond to God’s rebuke, humble ourselves, repent, fully accept his grace and return to the one who redeemed us (Isaiah 44:22).

Isaiah 61 — declared by Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth as the vision for his ministry in Luke 4 — is the blueprint for rebuilding the ruins.

He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” — Luke 4:16-21

This is the good news; the holy vision that will be realized. May Christ’s healing love become our cause. Let us draw closer and closer to Him. May we be our Master’s instruments in this time and proceed with hope and in the love in which there is no fear.