I once did business with and lost around $100k to a woman who was a big-picture visionary, able to see incredible opportunities and create trust with others almost instantly. She did, however, consistently over-promise and under-deliver, creating an increasingly long line of disgruntled former investors.

When despair was upon her, she would sequester herself to listen to her library of a well-known motivational speaker’s tapes, reappearing again an hour or so later ready to take on the world once more. In doing so, this unconsciously incompetent businesswoman avoided painful self-reflection, replacing it with a large dose of audio fire-walking. The way I figure it, the motivational speaker owes me (and no doubt other former associates) about $100k.

Self-reflection can be painful, but pays incredibly large dividends. Avoid it at your (and others’) peril.