Arrogance, pride and hubris. The triple threat of career killers. I was at a presentation last week where the presenter was trying to be funny by putting down other people. The problem was that the arrogance he exuded was too true to his form and too real for the people in the crowd to think it humorous. There were few laughs. A title in our work life means much but it can also mean too much if we are not careful. Because we have letters before or after our names does not make us who we are. Those letters can define what we do, but should not define who we are. When let those get mixed up then our ego takes over and we are on the way to becoming someone we won’t want to be. In the business world, these things catch up with us. We may be able to think more highly of ourselves than others for awhile but when the results falter, or we stumble, or we make the inevitable mistake, then we will find that those who we thought were below us, step aside and will not catch us. So, we have to constantly check our ego and check it at the door when we think we are getting too big for our britches. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians, “I don’t want anyone to think more highly of me than what they can actually see in my life and my message.” How poignant and applicable to all of us. Let’s take today and do a little checking to see where we are letting our egos run away on us, pull it back and be sure that we really know who we are.

Reference: 2 Corinthians 12:6 (New Living Testament)