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January has been the month of very public falls from grace in the business world. Last week, Thomas Krens, 61, resigned as director of Manhattan's prestigious Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation. Earlier came the news that investor Eddie Lampert had lost a ton of money at his hedge fund, ESL Investments. A year or two ago he seemed untouchable, the first Wall Street financier to earn more than $1 billion in a year. Then there's Barry Diller, normally venerated in media circles, who has seen the worth of his interactive commerce company, IAC, tank, and is now locked in battle with co-owner John Malone.
Krens's fall I could have predicted. A man with undeniable flair, he didn't have the capacity to listen or stick to budgets, convinced he was right with his plans for museum expansion. This worked as long as he was right. But when the strategy never took off, the money was in the red and the board was fed up - well, then it was time to say goodbye.
I was thinking about Krens when I saw that Donald Trump is struggling to get permits for a golf resort in Aberdeenshire. Trump's attitude, on the face of it, looks just like that of Krens and other US businessmen. Namely the type unused to hearing "no", full of self-regard and bluster.
Yet the key to being successful here has more in common with the British self-effacing spirit than you'd imagine. The most powerful business people in America include Warren Buffett, Rupert Murdoch, hedge fund king Steve Cohen, and perhaps even former Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin. All are publicity-shy workaholics who are much less interested in the trappings of wealth than in the sheer intellectual exercise of how to make it.
Those who confuse success with public self-glorification - Jean-Marie Messier, once at top media behemoth Vivendi, or Carly Fiorina, once head of Hewlett-Packard - have learned the hard way that turning yourself into Icarus doesn't work. Unless, of course, you consistently produce results.
The problem is that the most talented people among us, especially creative types, are usually people so passionate about their work that playing a subdued political game is not in their psychological make-up. So how to stave off the Icarus complex and be quietly successful? A friend once gave me a tip. Whenever you are out, never ever talk about yourself. Always ask other people how they are doing. It works wonders.
