According to many psychologists, subconscious fear of success is one of the key factors that block people's progress. Not every person, of course, will admit that he or she doesn't want to succeed. This fear could be buried deep within, unrecognized, and in the process of self-analysis, it must be uncovered and dealt with.

"Success is relative. Once you have it, all the relatives come", said John Maxwell. This joke has much truth in it - a successful person easily becomes a center of attention. Your relatives do come, but not only relatives. Your friends come. People that used to be your friends long time ago come. People that want to be your friends are gathered at your front door, too. What are you going to do about this great crowd?

Not so often can we find such a thing as private success. In most cases, success implies becoming known, becoming visible. When our fame spreads out throughout the land, we face a serious challenge. The quality of our interpersonal relationships, then, need to improve significantly. Otherwise, we would feel desire to draw back to the state of mediocrity, where we aren't noticed by many.

Now, I do not recommend anyone to become cold, emotionless, unfriendly, and suspicious of others. Believe in people. Believe that there will be good, honest, sincere, and loving people that will be attracted to you to share your joy and to assist you in many different ways. However, we need to keep our eyes open, and to be aware that some of those coming to us have a secret agenda. Can we discern their true motives?

Some people would love to take credit for our achievements, and to get something from us. They could say to us things like, "Remember, I gave you this idea? How could you forget that I helped you 25 years ago?"

Some people may want to reap fruits of our harvest after the work is done. After we've invested a sufficient part of our life into a certain project, they are coming along, telling, in essence, "Hey, let us own it together".

Some people may want to become our advisors. They will be ready to give us thousands upon thousands of excellent recommendations - the ones that failed, for some reason, to help them.

So, the question is, do we have guts to say "no" to the people that don't mind their own business?
Can we deal with envy?
Can we deal with flattery?
Can we deal with false accusations?
Can we stand, if necessary, alone, and work alone?
Are we free from the spell of the crowd?

If we have problems with unresolved guilt complex about being successful, getting ahead of others, and having more than others, our chances to remain successful are low.

It takes courage to succeed, but it takes even greater courage to maintain success. People on the top become an excellent target, and we've got to learn how to protect ourselves.

Let me suggest you some positive, affirmative statements that can be used for developing such a courage: