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The Success Trap by Amina Aitsi-Selmi
Good job, good salary, recognition from your peers. Sounds great, right?
Well, sure. But none of these things – nothing that we conventionally call “success” – is necessarily going to make you happy.
In fact, achieving this sort of success can even do you harm. You might start to forget what you want out of life, what your true priorities are, or – to be blunt – what “success” means to you.
Because success, in its conventional form, is a trap. And it’s time to break out.
The author, Dr. Amina Aitsi-Selmi, did just that. She shifted her career away from health policy and toward coaching work. As you’ll see in these blinks, there’s no reason you can’t also find a new path.
In these blinks, you’ll learn
• how success myths trap us in the wrong career;
• how to overcome goal addiction; and
• what to do when you’ve made it out of the trap.
In the complex modern world of work, it’s all too common to fall into the success trap.
In the twenty-first century, the workplace is unlike it’s ever been before.
Wages are stagnant, while the cost of living soars. Artificial intelligence is threatening to take jobs away. And worldwide happiness levels are in the gutter. A 2017 survey found that, out of 40 activities, people ranked paid work as being the second worst thing for their well-being. The only thing worse? Being ill in bed.
Today’s chaotic world is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. It even has an acronym: VUCA. And it also applies to our careers. It’s no wonder that when people feel they’re on to a good thing, they tend to stay put. The thing is, staying put can also lead to problems.
The key message here is: In the complex modern world of work, it’s all too common to fall into the success trap.
It might sound strange to think of success as a trap. But what looks like success often hides deeper problems.
Say you find a stable, well-paying job. You then quickly adapt to a lifestyle that matches your means – you buy or rent expensive property, go on exotic holidays, and so on. But that creates a dependency on your job, and that means you stop evaluating whether it’s making you happy.
It’s not always about money though. Take Xena, a successful doctor working in policy and research. Outwardly, she seemed driven, able, and set for success. But inwardly, she was struggling with a regimented workplace culture and doubting whether she was truly making a difference. She felt stuck climbing a traditional career ladder.
Xena was trapped by the success myth – the idea that achieving promotion after promotion is all a career should be. Other people become trapped by work myths, like the idea you must keep busy all the time or maximize your productivity. And financial incentives can trap you too, either through the high salary itself, or the golden handcuffs promise of a future pay rise.
So what do you do when you feel trapped? Xena eventually took the plunge and started out on her own, finding a related line of work that was a better match for her.
These blinks will help you do the same, but first, you should consider this important question: Why do high achievers, in particular, have to grapple with these problems?
High achievers might seem to have it easy but success brings its own problems.
Diana was a classic high achiever. She was following in her father’s footsteps as a hospital consultant and her career had started fantastically well.
It wasn’t long before she was headhunted by a top hospital and given a leadership position. Recognition and awards were pouring in, and she found the time for a few half-marathons along the way.
But something didn’t feel right. Was she really doing the right thing with her life? It felt like she was at the top of a mountain – but what came next? Another mountain?
Success was great – but it hadn’t brought fulfillment.
The key message here is: High achievers might seem to have it easy but success brings its own problems.
Of course, it’s not only high achievers who experience career crises. Plus, being a high achiever isn’t a problem in itself. But the strange thing is, for those who achieve the most, a career crisis can feel particularly acute.
For many successful people, achievement is a compulsion. They achieve one goal, and then immediately move on to the next – there’s no stepping back and feeling proud. And there often isn’t time for concerns like health and relationships, either.
What’s worse, is that when successful people start to feel unfulfilled, they often feel guilty about it. Doctors do this especially. Because their job has a high status and is seen to be doing good, questioning their own happiness can feel ungrateful.
Another issue that successful people often face is imposter syndrome, which is the very common feeling that you aren’t competent at your own job – it’s something everyone from Michelle Obama to Meryl Streep has struggled with. Finally, successful people may also find they become what the author calls, rescuers:

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