I was watching a documentary on narcissists and one of the psychologists said something which struck me as strange but perhaps true? He said “Everybody needs a degree of narcissism and in fact narcissism relates to success in life. There’s a direct relationship. The more narcissistic you are, the more financial material success you have in life.” There could be some truth to this because overbearing, egomaniac bosses/elite aren’t all that uncommon.
These are the 9 characteristics associated with narcissism:
Gran-diosity
Arrogant and Domineering
Preoccupation with success and power
Lack of empathy
Belief of being unique
Requiring excessive admiration
Sense of entitlement
Exploitative
Envious of others
One of the narcissists studied in the documentary displayed 3 of the above 9 characteristics and he was quite… um not likeable. In his opinion though, he was just extremely confident and not an egomaniac. To be clinically diagnosed, you need to possess at least 5 or more traits associated with narcissistic personality disorder.
So anyway, coming back to the real question - Do you agree that narcissism correlates with success in life? If so, why don’t we all adapt a bit of a narcissistic attitude to be successful in life?
I dont agree that narcissism correlates to success in life.
First off you would need to define what is considered success in life? Financial success? Material success?
I dont want to turn this into a religious thread, but Narcissism is a quality associated with Iblees (the Satan). In fact, it is this very quality which was his downfall.
On the other hand, the prophets of Islam, including our last prophet, Muhammad (SAW) were nor narcissistic or arrogant in their lives and spread the message of Allah in their lives. Would you not consider their lives successful?
There was a recent study which showed that nascissitic ceos deliver the best gains..
on the other hand, they also deliver the worst losses.
there are advantages and disadvantages of the traits that constitute a narcisstic individual.
More narcissistic CEOs led companies that had more extreme performance results — sometimes they’d do well and other times they’d do terribly
They also found more narcissistic CEOs were linked to big performance fluctuations for the companies — for a few years they would do really well but this would usually be followed by several years where they did very poorly
I think it’s true that narcissism correlates with success. It’s not a matter of ability, but a matter of motivation. Someone with the qualities you listed would be highly driven, and they would probably sacrifice a lot in terms of their personal lives to achieve success and fame.
Read The Forbes article. Surprised to see Eric Schmidt in the list. I think he is google Ceo. Google has been well run. No debt. He doesn’t go for short term gains.
John chambers classic example. Loves media attention. Perennial aquirer. Focuses on short term gains. Ultimate value destroyer.
Fiorina - I don’t think she was at the helm for long at HP.
narcissism can be called a significant higher degree of self confidence and self importance, so a little bit of it is definitely required to excel.
But the line is very thin and being very domineering and arrogant might actually lead to a major failure rather than success. So it’s a very debatable concept. But I don’t agree with it’s directly proportional relationship with success
Other day I saw a book titled " The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and** Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success** "
Buying apple phone for your self and for all your children is successful life. ?
Or buying apple phone for all of them, and give apple phone as gift to friends and family is a success ?
It seems when we refer to success in this thread…usually this means material success.
I’ve noticed at times the worst is automatically assumed about someone in a position of authority. All because you’re required to make decisions people will not agree with at times. Its not about being “nice”…its about getting what’s needed done. Some become sensitive to others’ feelings which is great but unfortunately I don’t think the head honchos of any corporation have the luxury of caring for their personal reputations. They have to deliver results because that’s what is expected of them.
You make a very good point with regards to the successful lives of Allah kay banday and indeed that is the real success. But who doesn’t want a promotion these days? Everyone craves a bit of luxury in their lives and if a narcissistic attitude helps them achieve what they want to achieve, shouldn’t they go for it?
That makes sense. Narcissists think they’re invincible so they’re bound to make some risky decisions which could lead to either awesome or disastrous consequences. I remember listening to a speech by Imran Khan on Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi’s cricket career and he said “Cricket wasn’t his bread and butter. You have to understand that. This is why he wasn’t afraid to take risks when he played and this was one of the reasons for his success.” … Not saying Pataudi was a narcissist.. just something that I remembered when I read this post.
So true, Reha! They don’t always have the time for pep-talking or spoon-feeding others and they have to be strict to a great extent so they can appear intimidating to others.
(This smiley is a bit narcissistic, isn’t it!)