Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces people into thinking they can't lose.

Bill Gates made this remark while reflecting on Microsoft’s dominance in the late 1990s and the dangers of complacency that can follow repeated wins in business. In interviews around that period—when Microsoft was facing intense competition in internet-era markets and heightened scrutiny from regulators—Gates often emphasized that past victories can distort judgment, causing leaders and organizations to underestimate new threats and overestimate their own inevitability. The line captures a managerial lesson he returned to frequently: that the most perilous moment for a successful company is when it begins to treat its current position as permanent rather than contingent.

The quote argues that success can be more dangerous than failure because it distorts judgment. When people or institutions win repeatedly, they may mistake favorable conditions, timing, or temporary advantages for permanent superiority. That “seduction” dulls curiosity and vigilance: errors are rationalized, warning signs are dismissed, and adaptation slows. Gates’s phrasing casts success as an active tempter—something that encourages self-deception—so the antidote is deliberate humility: treating victories as provisional, continuing to test assumptions, and learning as intensely as one does after setbacks.