21.2 | Why "Taking the Glory" Affects the Flow of the Next Round
Section 2 | Why "Taking the Glory" Affects the Flow of the Next Round
—— The True Invisible Cost After Success: The Receding of the Self, the Interruption of Flow, and the Closing of the Channel
1. The Most Dangerous Moment After Success: The Re-emergence of the Ego
We have repeatedly demonstrated in the previous sections:
A person’s success never comes from the "Self," but rather from—
The loosening of the Ego, the opening of the heart’s door, and allowing the power of God and the order of the universe to enter.
We have explained all along the way:
- We fundamentally do not know what is right;
- Success always happens outside of the plan;
- Giving our all is only to loosen the Ego and make room for submission;
- True solutions are not thought up, but appear after surrendering.
But when success actually descends, people are most prone to doing one extremely dangerous thing:
Taking the glory that should be attributed to God, to the universe, and to Grace, and pulling it back onto "Myself."
Once you do this, it might look like just a change in how you explain things,
But in fact, you are starting a series of deep chain reactions:
The Ego re-inflates, the capacity for submission drops, and the flow of Grace is blocked.
The result is: the next round of success no longer arrives, and you might even lose the success you have already obtained.
This section is meant to explain:
Why taking the glory will directly affect the flow of the next round and the entry of Grace.
2. A Real Story from Silicon Valley
There is a serial entrepreneur in Silicon Valley named Mark (pseudonym), who created a massive hit product in his early years.
His breakthrough at that time came from a classic "Submission Structure":
He was completely out of options, he let go of his own judgment, and the solution came from a direction he originally would not have chosen.
All key resources also came from "unexpected people and unexpected moments."
In other words, his first success happened in the gap where the "Self was insufficient" and "Grace intervened."
But after the success, he made a fatal mistake:
He re-interpreted all the results as his own vision, his own judgment, and his own ability.
During media interviews, he said:
"Actually, I saw this trend coming all along." > "At the critical nodes, I made the decisions based on my business intuition." > "Others couldn't do it because they weren't smart enough."
He forgot:
- At that time, he fundamentally did not have that kind of judgment;
- He was at a dead end back then;
- The plan wasn't something he could have thought up himself.
After the Ego re-occupied the center, things took a sharp turn for the worse.
In his second venture, he tried to replicate the same model, but completely lost the previous flow:
Inspiration didn't come, the team left, the capital chain broke, and every decision he made felt like "crashing into an invisible wall."
Finally, he wrote in a reflection article:
"It wasn't until later that I understood, my first success was never mine. And when I took the glory back, I locked myself back into my old Self."
This sentence reveals a very deep law:
Taking the glory is exactly the act of re-closing the channel to success.
3. Psychological Analysis: Why Does "Attribution Error" Immediately Interrupt the Capacity for the Next Breakthrough?
Psychology has a classic mechanism:
1) Illusion of Control After you take the glory from God and attribute it to yourself, you will again start to think:
"I can control everything by myself." This causes you, when facing the next problem:
To be unwilling to let go, unwilling to submit, and even because the Ego has already positioned itself as "I am a highly capable winner,"
You become even more unwilling to admit the mistakes of the Ego, and unwilling to admit defeat.
You are unwilling to enter the true state of being "out of options."
And this is precisely the necessary prerequisite for a breakthrough to occur.
2) Cognitive Closure Once you believe "this was all made by me,"
Your brain will automatically close off possibilities that do not fit your narrative.
Breakthrough requires openness;
Ego inflation brings closure.
The soil for a breakthrough is destroyed, so how could the next round possibly happen?
4. Theological Explanation: Why Does Taking the Glory Prevent Grace from Flowing Again?
1) The Prerequisite for Grace to Enter is the Loosening of the Ego Success happened because your Ego was loose at that time:
- Giving your all
- Being out of options
- Letting go of judgment
- Submission
- Making room
And after success, once you take the glory back to the Self:
Your Ego immediately floods back, the door of your heart closes again, and the space for submission disappears instantly.
That tiny gap that you finally managed to open through suffering and failure
Is slammed shut the moment you say "I did it" or "I’m so great" after success.
It’s not that Grace is unwilling to give to you,
It’s that the channel is gone.
2) Grace is Flowing; It Does Not Stay Fixed on Any One Person God's Grace is flowing and infinite, but Grace does not play favorites with any one person.
The logic of Grace is:
Where it is open, it flows.
Where it is blocked, it stops.
So your true "competitor" is not the peers in the market,
But rather, "on this river of Grace, who is open and who is closed."
After taking the glory, you become closed again; you are no longer open,
So the flow naturally will not come to your side anymore.
3) Taking the Glory is a Departure from God This is not "God punishing you." It is the consequence of a self-chosen act:
When you attribute the glory to yourself and explain the source as yourself,
You are unwilling to listen and unwilling to ask for God’s help anymore. The flow of God’s Grace is like electricity;
It is always being supplied, but you have turned off your valve and blocked the Grace.