I’ve always been fascinated with the phrase “pride goes before a fall” and I’ve always wondered why.  A recent article by Seth Borenstein of the Associated Press provides us with some terrific insight.  As it turns out, when many people experience success, it leads to overconfidence and excessive pride or arrogance–I’m the expert and I know what I’m doing.  Next, complacency sets in–these people are so pleased with their success that they no longer feel vulnerable to trouble or danger.  Warning signs of impending disaster begin to appear, but they’re either ignored or laughed off.  Then all of a sudden, boom, disaster strikes and they wonder how it could have happened to them.  This chain of events is exactly what happened to Toyota.  The company’s leadership was so enamored with having unseated General Motors as the world’s number one seller of automobiles that they thought they could do no wrong.  As a result, they ignored all the warning signs that eventually led to Toyota’s safety disaster which the company is still trying to sort out.  As British social theorist, John Ruskin put it, “In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.”