Articles

The Many Colors of Success: What do Executives Want out of Life? (2010)

Manfred Kets de Vries

"What does success mean to senior executives?"

Eight major categories of success emerged: family, wealth, work/career, recognition/fame, power, winning/overcoming challenges, friendships, and meaning. Experiences of success depended on “intrinsic” or “external” validation, and the inner scripts that these executives had developed while growing up, which influenced their perceptions of success and how they experienced it. The qualities of focus, persistence, and self-mastery, among others, featured in the scripts of many successful people. The darker side of success was partly accounted for by what can be described as the “Faust Syndrome,” the melancholia that follows the sense of everything being completed. What the narratives for most of these executives illustrate, is that success is a journey, not a destination.

Organizational Dynamics, 2010

Article Comments

Sally Jackson

Sep 11, 4:38 PM

I am interested in receiving information on leadership and change

Go back

Related content

"What do executives want out of life?"

The Many Colors of Success: What do Executives want out of Life?

This article is based on the responses of 160 senior executives to questions of what success means to them.

Published on 9 Jan, 2009

"High achievers who feel they are complete fakes"

The Dangers of Feeling like a Fake

This article describes that "neurotic imposture" a kind of behavior that causes a great many extremely talented, hardworking, and capable executives—men and women who have achieved great success by the world's standards–to believe, deep down, that they don't deserve it.

Published on 17 Nov, 2006

"Deconstructing happiness"

The Graduation Speech: Reflections on Happiness

This essay addresses the question of what makes for happiness. An attempt is made to deconstruct this elusive concept.

Published on 1 Jun, 2000

"Is it possible to know oneself?"

Turning Who You are into What you Do

This blog explores the question of whether it is possible to know oneself when so much of that knowledge is beyond conscious awareness.

Published on 21 Jan, 2015

"Death anxiety and executive mortality"

Executives Must Face Their Own Mortality

This blog entry with the Harvard Business Review explores the death anxiety and what happens when we repress our fear of death and refuse to confront it.

Published on 24 Mar, 2014

"Insatiable desire for more can be destructive"

Seven Signs of The Greed Syndrome

It is said that without greed we would still be living in caves but, left unchecked, the insatiable desire for more and better material things can be destructive.

Published on 8 Apr, 2016

"How would you like to be remembered?"

The Epitaph Question

How would you like to be remembered? What would you like to be your epitaph? Thoughts about our legacy can influence our life’s trajectory. Consciously or unconsciously, they impact our life’s choices. Thinking about how you would like to be remembered can be a catalyst for radical change.

Published on 5 Sep, 2016

"Executive complexes regularly encountered in orgs"

Executive Complexes

This article explores the nature and origin of executive complexes and presents five complexes regularly encountered in organisational coaching and consulting work.

Published on 1 Dec, 2007

"What should you consider when taking an entre-preneur on board?"

The Dark Side of Entrepreneurship

This article addresses what you should look out for if you are considering taking an entrepreneur on board, working for one, or encouraging new ventures.

Published on 1 Nov, 1985

"Despotic regimes and dynamics of leadership by terror"

The Spirit of Despotism: Understanding the Tyrant Within

The objective of this article is to better understand the developmental history of despotic regimes and the existence of leadership by terror.