The Illusion of "They Made It"

Recently, I went to a talk in San Francisco where three prominent tech CEOs were conducting a panel. For better or worse, these events are pretty common in Silicon Valley. While they tend to get repetitive, I still find them energizing to go to, especially when the events are centered around the right messages. In this case, the event did have a good feel to it.

During the Q&A portion, a young guest asked about what was next for each of the CEO’s now that they’ve “made it”. On paper, I guess they had: each company had large valuations, were cash positive, and were popular consumer brands that served a lot of people. But one by one, the CEOs denied that they had “made it”. And you have to trust me when I say that none of them had false pretenses about them in their responses – you could tell that they weren’t just pretending to be humble.

“There is still so much potential in what our teams can do,” said one of them, “and so much that I see our competitors doing. I celebrate how far we’ve come, but there is so much further we can go.”

“There are still so many more jumps we can take,” agreed another, “and as individuals, we tend to overestimate the risk involved in making a jump, whatever the jump may be to grow ourselves and our teams.”

Their psychology was shown: the best are never done. 

They’ve never “made it”.

Perhaps in a split second, the feeling of having “made it” exists. At the end of a movie as part of a happy ending, the protagonist may look around at some beautiful surroundings – new home, new car, new job, new family – and may seem to have achieved all that they’re meant to. Or maybe, you’ve “made it” because your circumstances are so vastly different from what they may have been; maybe your life has changed for the better. Former addicts, homeless, or even people who may have grown up with very little means can completely upgrade their lives. (Those stories abound; just listen to Tony Robbins’ media and you’ll hear those inspirational tales.) If you fall into this category, you may feel as though you have “made it”. 

But the truth is that for everyone, the feeling of having made it exists for just a moment before there’s more that you have to make, achieve, or do. 

In the warped world of Silicon Valley, it’s so easy to compare yourself to well accomplished contemporaries; there are always people in your immediate and outer circles who can be considered as having “made it” that much more than you have. (Think about it – every young tech executive is comparing themselves to Zuckerberg, and everyone who is a Zuckerberg is comparing themselves to Marc Benioff, and so on.) And so, the feeling of having “made it” quickly dissipates even for the most spiritual among us, whether you’re a mid-level employee at a large tech company or the CEO of a pre-IPO enterprise.

The hard work isn’t making it. The hard work is determining what the values, ideas, and processes are that will get you there – wherever “there” is – because these are what will sustain you. If you aren’t proud of the values and ideas you live by along the way before you “make it,” then making it won’t matter. If you don’t enjoy the process along the way, nothing will ever be enough.

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