Collapsing by Doubling Down: How Leaders Create Their Own Ruin
Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey) was a very successful leader during the final years of the ancient Roman republic. Isaac Asimov told his story in 1971, noting a curious detail. Pompey was successful in everything he did up to a fateful day, in 61 BCE. From then on, everything he did was a failure until he was assassinated in Egypt, in 48 B.C. Half-jokingly, Asimov suggested that Pompey’s reversal of fortunes coincided with having desecrated the temple of Jerusalem, that he had just conquered.
There are many more examples. Think of Adolf Hitler: successful in everything he did, until his ill-fated decision of attacking the Soviet Union in 1941 (same mistake as Napoleon). Or of Benito Mussolini. Everything he did was a success up to when he engaged Italy in WWII as an ally of Germany….
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