Quote of the Day: “Success can cause people to unlearn the habits that made them successful in the first place” — Satya Nadella
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, is known for being one of the topmost tech leaders of the world. He uses his position to mostly comment on current tech developments and often shares his predictions on the sector. Satya Nadella also has often shared some profound insights on life.
In his 2017 book Hit Refresh, Satya Nadella talked about success and its implications on people.
Quote of the day by Satya Nadella
“Success can cause people to unlearn the habits that made them successful in the first place”, Satya Nadella says in his book.
What does Satya Nadella’s quote mean?
Satya Nadella used this quote in his 2017 book Hit Refresh. The quote is a reminder for us all that success can lead to complacency sometimes. It is important to stay grounded and empathetic to keep growing and not suffering a fall.
The quote highlights that success can often make us unlearn habits and instead cause us to lose the disciplined, hungry, or innovative ideas that made us successful in the first place and came as a driving power to our initial initiatives.
If we forget these habits, it can often lead to overconfidence, reduced efforts and neglect of the very foundations that made us successful.
The quote highlights a practice that humans often find themselves doing and thus leading to mistakes. When we become successful, many of us can take it for granted and start relaxing with the pressure being less, leading us to be lenient in our efforts.
Through this quote, Satya Nadella emphasises the need to keep learning and never stopping the practices that laid the path towards a successful life. It is necessary to have a “learn it all” attitude than a “know it all” attitude.
The quote serves as a reminder to leaders and CEOs as well as other individuals to maintain curiosity, discipline and the willingness to deal with failure — qualities that sent them to the top.
The quote is a central theme to Satya Nadella’s book Hit Refresh.
Who is Satya Nadella? All about the Indian-origin Microsoft CEO
Satya Nadella is the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Microsoft, one of the largest companies in the world. He is the first India-born person to assume the top leadership role at the company.
Under Nadella, Microsoft has more cloud computing revenue than Google, more subscribers than Netflix.
Joining Microsoft in 1992, he quickly became known as a leader who could span a breadth of technologies and businesses to transform some of Microsoft’s biggest product offerings.
Before becoming the CEO of Microsoft in 2014, Nadella held leadership roles in both enterprise and consumer businesses across the company.
Before joining Microsoft, Nadella worked at Sun Microsystem. He joined Microsoft in the role of an engineer. In 2025, Satya Nadella drew a massive salary of $96.5 million.
Originally from Hyderabad, India, Nadella lives in Bellevue, Washington, with his family. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Mangalore University, a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago.
- Success can lead to complacency; one must stay grounded and continue learning.
- A ‘learn it all’ attitude is crucial for sustained success.
- Maintaining curiosity and discipline is essential to avoid overconfidence and neglect.
