This headline from MarketWatch reminded me of an old satire which became a real management principle. It was called The Peter Principle and it was the brainchild of Laurence Peter. It goes like this.

In an organization, people get promoted because they are good at their jobs. But a time comes when they have been promoted once too often. The are now in jobs that are beyond their competence. There they stagnate.

So, everyone in the organization reaches their level of incompetence sooner or later. And, in a funny corollary to this principle, every important job in the organization is ultimately held by an incompetent person.

Billionaires have been on a rampage buying sports teams. They come from highly successful backgrounds where everything they touched turned to gold. Now, they are competing with one another and are assured of only a 50% success rate because one billionaire’s win is another’s loss. Voila! They have encountered The Peter Principle!

The billionaires learned this lesson after spending a few billion dollars. Mercifully, I reached my level of incompetence a long time ago without spending a dollar!

I will toast to that this Holiday season!

Cheers!