Performance and Success: Not the Same

Reams of pages have been written on how to improve performance and achieve success.

But performance and success are quite different, according to physicist and network scientist Albert-László Barabási.

“Performance is deeply linked to the individual,”.....Success, on the other hand, is “the collective response of the community to your performance and how well it acknowledges or rewards you for that.”

In many occupations performance is increasingly amenable to quantifiable measurement (e.g., jobs completed, sales completed, papers published), while success is still largely a social concept.

One famous example of the difference is Emily Dickinson, who was unknown--unsuccessful!--during her lifetime but became recognized as one of the greatest American poets after her papers were published posthumously.

Professor Barabási has different advice for both performers and those who evaluate them (the ones who determine "success").

“If you’re good at something, that’s like having loaded dice,” says Prof. Barabási. “If you only roll once, you’re wasting your chances. You have to roll over and over again!”

In other words, keep writing, keep auditioning, keep inventing.

if your company brings job candidates in for interviews, each member of your team should speak to them in a different order or on separate visits...You should review potential investments in random order, lest you be influenced by whether they come toward the beginning or the end.

If you are an evaluator, these are structural aids to eliminate bias.

Come to think of it, it's not surprising why top performers often make poor managers.