Alligators don’t mess around. They are incredibly dangerous animals that can overpower prey far larger than themselves.

But interestingly enough, they are also most vulnerable at a very specific moment. So if you ever needed to kill an alligator, the time to do it would be right after it has eaten. That is when it is most satisfied, almost to the point of being paralyzed.

Now the point of this isn’t to actually kill an alligator. The point is that even something as powerful as an alligator becomes vulnerable when it is satisfied.

You and I are not much different.

Recently, I spent some time with Mac Barnhardt, a golf agent and successful businessman. During our conversation, he said something I have not stopped thinking about:

“It’s not about how you handle failure, it’s really about how you handle success.”

Mac’s point is an important one. Handling failure is not easy, but eventually everyone has to learn how to recover from it. Where people often struggle much more is how they respond to success.

Success has a strange way of making people comfortable right when they should stay hungry. They shift into maintenance mode instead of improvement mode. They begin protecting what they have instead of pushing for what could be next.

In other words, they become a little like the alligator right after it has eaten, satisfied and complacent.

But that does not have to be you. Success can either make you comfortable or make you hungrier. The difference depends on the mindset you choose to bring to it.

So here is a question worth asking yourself today.

What do you actually handle better, success or failure?

P.S. The Optimistic Outlook is a Podcast! Leaving a rating or review wherever you listen to podcasts would mean a lot.