"It is a process, not a destination"

 If you were around during the 1980's, you probably remember a hit song by the British rock band, Dire Straits called "Industrial Disease".  I don't know if there is such a thing or not (it probably is a thing), but there is definitely something called "Success Disease."  The legendary San Francisco 49ers football coach, Bill Walsh, wrote about "Success Disease" in his book, "The Score Takes Care of Itself", but undoubtedly he wasn't the first person to describe it.  Walsh described it as follows:

First comes confidence, followed quickly by overconfidence, arrogance, and a sense that 'we've mastered it; we've figured it out; we're golden.  But the gold can tarnish quickly.  Mastery requires endless remastery.  In fact, I don't believe there is ever true mastery.  It is a process, not a destination.

If you think you've finally reached the peak of success, you are absolutely wrong.  Albert Einstein reportedly once said, "Once you stop learning, you start dying."  The same can be said about improvement.  Once you stop improving, you are finished.  There is no such thing as perfection, and the sooner that you accept that fact, the better off that you will be.

Case in point.  Again, if you lived during the 1980's, you will remember the 1985 benefit concert, Live Aid, a concert held simultaneously at London's Wembley Stadium and Philadelphia's JFK Stadium to raise money for the Ethiopian Famine relief.  Legendary singer/songwriter/drummer, Phil Collins sang his then hit song, Against All Odds for the London crowd.  The fans, and even Collins' fellow musicians were in for a treat (if you look close at the video, you will notice Sting watching Collins play).  By that point, Collins had successful award-winning careers as both the member of the rock band Genesis and as a solo musician.  If you listen carefully, right around 1 minute into the song, Collins makes a mistake.  It's a tiny one, but you can certainly notice it if you are paying attention.  He brushed it off, smiled, and kept on playing.  Nobody is perfect!  Even the great ones make mistakes.  More importantly, even the great ones still practice.

Successful teams are likely to get complacent.  They are frequently risk-averse.  And they frequently underestimate a challenger's ability to unseat them from their perch on the mountaintop.  Don't succumb to "Success Disease".  

"You can never reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward which you are ceaselessly striving."  Practice makes perfect.  Set the bar high.  Keep improving, no matter what.