From Hubris to Humility: A Warning to Today's Business Leaders

In his powerful book, How the Mighty Fall, Jim Collins outlines the stages of corporate decline. At the top of that descent? Hubris born of success.

Collins warns that the very qualities that once propelled companies to greatness—bold vision, risk-taking, innovation—can become liabilities when leaders begin to believe they’re invincible. It’s not market conditions or competition that sink most companies, it’s ego. It’s the internal rot of arrogance that begins when leaders stop listening, stop evolving, and stop valuing the very people who made them great.

Sound familiar?

We’re living in a moment where corporate greed is at an all-time high. Executive bonuses soar while employee wages stagnate. Stock buybacks take precedence over customer satisfaction. Automation replaces accountability. And in the midst of it all, CEOs forget that their most valuable asset isn’t a quarterly report, it's their people.

Here’s the danger: when leaders focus solely on profit and ignore purpose, culture, and contribution, they don't just risk failure—they guarantee it.

At AYM High Consultants, we coach entrepreneurs to lead with clarity and humility. We believe in business models that reward contribution, celebrate team wins, and measure success beyond the bottom line.

Because here’s the truth: You can’t scale sustainably if your foundation is built on ego.

It’s time to course-correct.

Replace hubris with gratitude.

Replace greed with growth.

Replace profits-only with people-first.

That’s how companies rise—and stay mighty.

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Fahim Mojawalla is the Motivation and Mission Lead at AYM High Consultants. He loves what he does and would love to show you how to make 21st century sales and marketing easy, simply by being authentic, appreciative, respectful, responsive, empathetic, collaborative, and all-around awesome. Along with his wife Seema, he is an effervescent co-owner of Island Ship Center, the Spa of Shipping.