After completing a major project that earns widespread praise—from your boss, colleagues, clients, and loved ones—you might expect to feel unstoppable. Instead, you find yourself stuck, lacking the drive to take on another challenge. Fear creeps in that your success was a one-time fluke. This fear can drain both your productivity and confidence.
Research from the Rotterdam School of Management in the Netherlands sheds light on why this happens and offers ways to overcome it.
Why Success Can Make You Fearful
The research identifies a phenomenon called “creative identity threat.” When your reputation for brilliance becomes a core part of who you are, the fear of tarnishing that identity with a less successful follow-up project can paralyze your creativity. This often leads to the dreaded “sophomore slump,” where your second project falls short simply because you’re too afraid to take risks.
Dirk Deichmann, one of the researchers, was inspired by the variety of cookbooks in a nearby store to study what drives cookbook authors’ success. Analyzing the UK’s cookbook market, he and collaborator Markus Baer discovered that about half of debut authors fail to publish a second book within five years. Intriguingly, it was often the most original and acclaimed authors who struggled to follow up.
This paradox can be explained by "role identity theory." If your identity is strongly tied to your creative success, you might avoid new projects for fear of damaging that image.
Evidence from Experiments
Deichmann and Baer tested this by having participants create cookbook concepts. Those praised for originality and given extra recognition were much less likely to propose a second idea. Their reluctance was linked to fear of damaging their creative reputation, as shown in surveys.
This creative identity threat can apply broadly—in any field where your ego depends on praise for success, whether marketing, design, or product creation.
How to Break Free
To overcome this mental block, Deichmann offers three practical strategies:
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Collaborate: Sharing creative work with others diffuses the pressure from yourself alone.
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Focus on Process, Not Outcome: Concentrate on the joy and flow of creativity instead of obsessing over external validation.
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Establish a Routine: Relying on random inspiration after a big win can be daunting. Instead, develop a structured process for generating and testing ideas systematically.
Supporting this, INSEAD’s Ella Miron-Spektor found that people focused on learning and skill-building consistently generate more ideas over time, while those fixated on outperforming others tend to stall.
There’s no guarantee that your next big idea will come easily, but by embracing collaboration, prioritizing creativity over performance, and cultivating a methodical approach, you can reduce the fear of failing and keep your creative momentum alive for future successes.