Seeking Sageship: Beyond Leadership

Seeking Sageship: Beyond Leadership

Dedication, Obsession, And Madness

The Boundary Of Success Few Are Willing To Cross

Dr. Cody Dakota Wooten's avatar
Dr. Cody Dakota Wooten
May 04, 2026
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Dedication, Obsession, And Madness

The Boundary Of Success Few Are Willing To Cross

Written by a human, for humans, always.


How badly do you want success?

Truly?

So many people talk about wanting success in whatever they do.

Talk about getting to the top.

Getting recognized.

Accomplishing something that matters.

But what are you going to do to get there?

Not in theory...

Not someday...

Here and now.

See...

There is something that I see lacking in most people when they talk about wanting success.

They really do not put themselves into it...

Not at the level that is necessary.

What level is that?

Well...

It requires a dedication...

But not any dedication...

It is a dedication that is obsessive...

Beyond what most people think is reasonable...

You may even need to find yourself on the border of what others might call...

Madness.

This is an edge that few people truly ever push themselves to.

There is a reason.

It is not easy.

It can feel like you are alone.

That is what is truly required, though.

But it is even more difficult...

Because when you push yourself to those levels...

On the border between obsession and madness...

You begin to wonder if you have fallen off the edge completely.

Others seem to think so.

How do you know that you have not?

Did you hit the breaking point?

When you push to that level of extreme dedication to something...

You cannot recognize what normal looks like anymore.

Even if you were to try to go back to that...

Could you?

If you are truly pushing to such extremes...

You begin to craft yourself into something different...

You think differently...

You act differently...

You live differently.

You have to become so intentional to reach those levels of success...

That anything before begins to feel...

Incompatible.

It feels like a different culture and world that existed...

One that you no longer belong to.

Even when you know that sounds unreasonable...

That you never stopped being here...

You can’t help but feel this way.

The truth is...

When you truly begin to push to that level of success...

There is no going back.

You cannot.

That is how I know so few people are truly ready for that level of success...

They are too afraid to leave behind what they have.

Now, I’m not saying that you “give up” everything you have in your life...

But your relationship with it will change...

Which is what people fear.

Change.

They want to have that success they seek...

But they are afraid of what they have changing from what it is.

If you are afraid of the change...

You cannot simultaneously be dedicated...

Not to the border of obsession and madness.

Change is necessary.

You must craft yourself...

Into a sharp instrument of what you seek.

But the quality of the instrument you become...

Depends on the quality and time you put into the crafting.

In any craft...

There are hobbyists...

There are those who do it for a living...

Then there are those who are considered master craftsmen.

What they do...

How they do...

Is so precise...

So measured...

So surreal...

That to behold what they do...

Is sublime.

That level is not achieved by ordinary measures.

To do what is common...

What everyone else does...

Will never get you to that level.

That is why the level of dedication that borders on obsession and madness is required...

But also, why most people will never attain that level.

How badly do you want success?

Truly?


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So, what should we keep in mind if we are going to push to this level?

What will allow us to approach the level of dedication required…

Without going into madness?

That is what we will discuss next.

Let’s Dive In…

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