Let's say you had a parent who was very successful in their business field. Let's also say that parent was either terrible at being a parent or a bad spouse. I

Let's say you had a parent who was very successful in their business field. Let's also say that parent was either terrible at being a parent or a bad spouse. If they were a bad parent, that impacted you directly and if they were a bad spouse, that may have impacted someone you care about aka the other parent. You may have at some point in your childhood created an emotional connection between: - good at business - bad at parenting/being spouse You in turn might then equate "being successful" with "being a bad person". Let me stop here and say: yes, this is totally irrational but emotions are, by definition, not always rational. Given the above, it wouldn't be surprising that you might develop a "fear of success". Particularly so if your goal is to be a better parent/spouse than the offending parent. In other words, "I don't want to be like them!" might affect both the parenting/spouse side of things and, because they are conflated, success in business.