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Success can make life look very good when it really isn't,

Harvard Business Review has a very interesting article:Resisting the Seductions of Success.

Tony and his wife have two children. He works for the New York office of the Securities and Exchange Commission, but his job is just a resting spot. Tony has a promising political career ahead of him—in a recent election, he almost beat a heavily entrenched incumbent. Tony is a veteran, with a Silver Star for bravery in Korea, and an entrepreneur. With his good friend Max, another attorney, he has started a law firm and made large investments in a computer company and a restaurant chain. Tony is an up-and-coming leader with bright prospects.

Then Tony makes two extraordinary decisions. First, he commits a serious but brilliantly undetectable crime. Next, despite the advice and pleas of everyone around him, Tony goes to the authorities and confesses, which destroys his professional life, throws his family into chaos, and puts them in physical danger. Leaders aim at success, not self-destruction, but this is exactly what Tony brings on himself.