CEO of Workday, the leading $65 billion software company, warning: “There’s nothing more dangerous than yesterday’s success”

• Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach has Leadership Survival Rules It’s written in every book he has: “Nothing is as dangerous as yesterday’s success.” Other CEOs like Jeff Bezos and Doug MacMillon agree that being obsessed with past or future victory will help you succeed.

Getting a taste of success is addictive and it’s natural to want to play those victories in your head as a small dopamine hit. But says Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach luck His “first rule of survival” is not left in past victory.

“It’s literally a quote from every book I’ve ever had. It’s very simple,” he says. “Nothing is more dangerous than yesterday’s success.”

The $65 billion software giant CEO started as a systems engineer for a small technology company in 1987, then raised the ladder and stepped into Dell’s first major leadership role in 2002 as a global account executive. zoom.

Plus, with over 35 years of experience scaling successful tech companies, Eschenbach knows one or two things about how to maintain a level head with each win. During a 14-year stint at a virtual computer company vmware As president and chief operating officer, He has grown It has increased its businesses of over 20,000 people from its 200 staff and revenues from $30 million to $7 billion.

Still, he refuses to run a coast run of past achievements.

“We’ll focus on drive, resilience, integrity… we haven’t seen past success,” stresses Eschenbach. “You can use it to learn from it, but I’m focused on how to promote future and success for our employees, our colleagues and our customers.”

“Don’t focus on success itself. Focus on the () big impact of others, and just focus on the future and do that.”

In just a year of his new role, the strategy pays off once again. Workday’s total revenue since taking on the role of CEO in early 2024 It’s skyrocketed It’s an $1.9 billion increase, or 17% year-on-year.

CEOs who live in the moment and ignore past successes

It’s exhilarating to reach career milestones and nailing assignments. It’s not like a rush of success when things take off. However, some leaders of the world’s largest companies hammer one lesson to the hammer home. Don’t fall in glory. If people become too comfortable, great success can lead to failure.

Take, for example, one of the world’s most seemingly unruly companies. For a $2 trillion retailer Amazon It was taking off, and then Jeff Bezos still kept his star customer service employee With the toes.

“I asked everyone around me to wake up terror every morning, their sheets were soaked with sweat,” Bezos said. I said.

The billionaire persuaded his team to focus on what’s now and serve the best possible Amazon shoppers. Bezos told them to ignore the competition. They are not giving money to the company. Staying in your own lane and constantly improving your already successful model has allowed your business to become one of the world’s largest retailers.

Even Doug McMillon of Walmart, CEO of Amazon’s FierCest rival and the world’s largest international retailer, echo Same emotion. From 1984 he began unloading trailers in warehouses and rose through business to pilot the number one company. luck 500.

It’s a career where most careers appear, and MacMillon is within his right to remember the great success that led him there. But the CEO doesn’t live in his victory or the next move. He reconstructed his way of thinking to focus on the present.

“I’m wired to think more about what’s coming next than the moment in front of me.” I said. “Planning is important, but you can also enjoy the present.”

This story was originally introduced Fortune.com