The Success Myth

Billionaires, Nobel Prize winners, and the idiot running your company. How do they do it? Will Storr reveals the only things you need to know.

- Will Storr

In the entire world, there are only 120 restaurants that have earned the highest honour of three Michelin stars. One of them is Gordon Ramsay’s flagship in London, at which UKbased Clare Smyth MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) ran the pass until 2016. She opened her first solo

restaurant, Core, in London in 2017, and soon reached the top. You might expect her to be pretty pleased with herself. “Oh, I’ve not achieved...” she trails off when asked. “I’ve got a lot to do.” For Clare, feeling that you’ve made it is a terrible danger. “You can’t allow yourself to think that. If you don’t continue to evolve, you’ll be gone in 10 minutes.” That’s the sound of real success.

Contrary to what you might have been led to believe, superachievers are not swollen with their own marvelousness; neither are they laden with IQ points. They probably weren’t even born with any particular talent. The secrets of these individuals are often surprising.

Take, for instance, Clare’s upbringing. In recent decades, it’s been widely believed that if children are to grow up to be successful, they need high self-esteem. That means receiving praise for everything, believing they’re special, and being protected from failure. Were Clare’s parents like that? “Not at all,” she laughs. “We were very disciplined. We didn’t speak until spoken to.” Raised in Ireland, Clare is the youngest of the three children. “I used to do show-jumping, and for Dad, it wasn’t good enough to just win...I had to be perfect. If I made a single mistake, I would’ve heard about it,” she says.