I love the comments readers make on our blogs. They are often insightful, and inspiring. Thanks to you all. One recent comment on When Economic Times are Tough, Achieving Success Depends on Marketing really hit me. Our reader said: “In becoming complacent, we can create our own bad economy.” Not only is that applicable to anyone trying to achieve success in business, it applies to our entire lives.

Complacency can actually be a form of neglect. You’re taking things for granted, assuming they will always be there no matter what, and you stop trying to take things to the next level, to grow. Then you wake up one morning and you realize that what you had is gone.

Sometimes it’s a complete surprise – like the husband or wife who announces they want a divorce and shocks their spouse. They thought everything was great. While it’s true some people go out of their way to hide their true feelings, often the warning signs were there for years. But they were ignored. The same is true in business.

One dictionary defines complacency as “A feeling of contentment or self-satisfaction, especially when coupled with an unawareness of danger, trouble, or controversy.”

I’m not saying you have to live in fear, but you will not achieve success if you’re not paying attention.

That’s the way it is with a business, a job, a marriage, and, yes, the economy.

Perhaps no one but the elite and very-well-informed few could have predicted the current U.S. economic disaster and its effect on other countries, but with proper management, one can always be prepared for the worst. Unless you’ve become complacent.

To achieve success in any endeavor, one must be constantly aware of what’s going on around them and be ready to act when they see things slipping. Yet another basic, and vital, entrepreneurial skill.