Humility & Hubris

Merriam-Webster defines Hubris a exaggerated pride or self confidence e.g. a boxer who shouts “I am the greatest” even though he is about to be pummeled by a stronger opponent.

“Hubris” has its origins in Greek language. Greeks did not have a word for sin, but only a word for error; so hubris was used to describe a wrongful action against a divine order. The Persian king Xerxes is described by Herodotus trying to punish the Sea for destroying his bridge over Hellespont!! or the warrior King Ajax in Sophocles’ play tells Athena, the protectress & goddess of war, to help other warriors, as he himself did not need divine help!! Athena helped the other side & who do you think won?? Hubris led Ajax to defeat!!

Historically too we see examples of hubris . On the Battlefield of Waterloo 18/6/1815, Napoleon Bonaparte who was leading the French against the British under the command of the Duke of Wellington, assured his soldiers, “I tell you Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad soldiers; we will settle this matter by lunchtime.” Well, by the end of that day, Napoleon was defeated & that ended his rule as Emperor of France!!

100 years after Napoleon’s arrogant remark & defeat, on 15/4/1912, just before the Titanic was about to embark on its maiden journey, one passenger asked a ship’s agent for extra insurance on some valuables in her luggage. The agent replied, “Ridiculous. This boat’s unsinkable.” Titanic’s Captain Edward Smith himself was asked about the safety of the Titanic. He answered – “I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that.”

Even after the ship had struck the iceberg, a concerned passenger asked a sailor if they should do something about it. He replied, “Go back to bed. This ship is unsinkable.”. Built by professionals, run & operated by professionals the sinking of the “unsinkable” ship showed that uncertainty & unpredictability are forever lurking around the corner, invited into our lives by hubris.

Take the famous case of Shackleton’s South Pole expedition. Shackleton wrote a letter to Times which invited hardy sailors & adventurers to join his expedition. A more graphic, though phantasmagorical, version was an ad:

Folklore has it that 5000 men applied, men clamoring to take their chances on the icy southern continent. Those were the days when ships were made of wood & men were made of steel. The story has been told and retold, & the quote riffed on to no end. But though their harrowing expedition, & the achievements of Shackleton’s men were real, the ad, sadly, was a myth.

Move forward another 90 years; consider Enron. The e-mail that Kenneth Lay, thethen CEO, sent to his employees in 2001, declared, “Our performance has never been stronger, our business model has never been more robust. We have the finest organization in American business today.” That was less than four months before Enron filed for bankruptcy.

Finally an example from the recent times : a study analyzed trades in stocks done by 10,000 clients at a discount brokerage firm. They wanted to ascertain if frequent trading led to higher returns. They found that the purchased stocks underperformed the sold stocks by 5% over one year, & 8.6% over 2 years. In other words, the more active the retail investor, the less money they make. Investors with hubris are arrogant. They believe & then regret losses in the market.

The point is, if you are repeatedly successful, there’s a temptation to believe that you’re no longer subject to human fallibility. But the honest and harsh truth is that in a world that is continually changing, every right idea or strategy eventually becomes the wrong one. Today’s problems were yesterday’s solutions! and Today’s solutions will become mill-stones in future!! Euphemistically George Harrison reminds us, ” Yesterday, today was tomorrow and Tomorrow, today will be yesterday. Einstein warned that we cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that we used when we created them. We may not be able to solve all the problems, but those we can, we must. Past successes guarantee nothing for the future. In fact, Past success may blind your way to the future!! The most classic examples are Nokia and Kodak who were blinded by their success & soon found themselves run aground. So remain humble, look forward & keep moving on.

With an arrogant attitude, you cease paying attention to differing viewpoints. Confirmation bias takes its roots in your brain, & you screen out all the sounds that tell you how you’re wrong, & amplify those that tell you how you are right.

It’s important to beware of hubris. When it bites, it bites hard. Hubris is basically an overestimation of one’s own competence or capabilities. This is particularly true when the person is in a position of influence or power.

There is a Russian proverb,” It is not the Gods that burn our pots” We need to look within. And these scions of power rarely get open & direct feedback or even opposing points of view, as people around them are afraid to speak up.

It is only the leaders’ humility which will encourage team members to speak up. It is their duty to create psychological safety in the team & s/he must introspect.” What have I done in the past that makes people clam up & not give the bad news” Today the leader does not have all the answers. If teams do not speak up, we may be losing enormous value, new product/service ideas, or even early warnings of market threats. Only a humble leader will be open to get such important feedback from the ground.

Regrettably, the problem is that most leaders’ think it will never happen to me. (The Optimism Bias).

Let’s hope it doesn’t. But the thing about hubris is that you rarely think you have it until it’s already run an unhealthy portion of its course. Startup failure rates are a wake up call: 20% of new businesses fail within the first two years. 45% of startups don’t survive the fifth year, 65% of new startups fail during the first ten years, 75% of startups go out of business during the first 15 years. And yet, talk to a startup management team….they have the optimism bias & do not believe it can happen to them.

Staying humble will keep you from risking too much in a view of the future that may well turn out to be wrong. Don’t be blinded by hubris. Be better today than you were yesterday & be better tomorrow than you are today.

There are a few world leaders who have proved that Humility is the most important virtue in public life. When it comes to embracing humility, Gandhi was an epitome, spending his life serving the poorest of the poor. He said ‘one must become as humble as the dust before he can discover truth.’ Other classic examples include Azim Premji, largest shareholder of Wipro, who has often taken an auto-rickshaw home from the airport after a business trip abroad. , Mark Rutte PM of Netherlands goes to office daily on his bicycle & teaches in a school once a week. He was recently in news for himself mopping up coffee spilled by him, while walking into the Ministry of Health. Abdul Kalam was always humble despite all the privileges. Lt Governor Kiran Bedi shared a rare belonging of the former president – his worn-out chappals – on Twitter. She wrote: “These Chappals of Dr Kalam were in the suitcase of his last journey to Shillong. See how worn out they were and had even been repaired”.

Sushil Koirala Prime Minister of Nepal, was known for his frugal lifestyle. He claimed to have no property & only three cellphones, out of which one didn’t work! President of Malawi, Joyce Banda sold off the Presidential jet & the fleet of 60 Mercedes limousines to help her country’s falling economy. All the money that came from selling the plane went to feeding more than 1 million people!!! Karia Munda, ex-deputy speaker of our Lok Sabha, chose to live in a village without any protection, sustaining himself by growing his own vegetables. Examples abound. Each prove the veracity of the sentence, ” stoop to conquer”

A little humility can help one stay away from disaster. In today’s world of uncertainty humility helps you understand you cannot control everything. You are not afraid to ask for help and you understand your own faults & shortcomings. You respect the opinions & views of others. You admit your ignorance of some things & accept defeat; & work hard to become better!!

So friends, steer clear of hubris, however heady it maybe. Choose instead humility and stay the course.

Trees are broken in storms. Grasses survive, as they can bend: vikibaba