Prateek Tanmay
6 min readNew DelhiJul 31, 2026 11:00 PM IST
Success is often seen as the ultimate goal in any career, but can it sometimes become a limitation instead? Actor Jaaved Jaaferi recently reflected on this paradox while speaking about his four-decade journey in the film industry.
“I think the younger lot, they’re in a hurry and they’re not very accommodating and all that. The good part is they are professional, they’re very serious, they’re very focused on what they want. So yes, there are these minuses and pluses,” he told HT City. He added that every generation has its own way of working, making such differences inevitable.
Jaaved also spoke about the pressures that come with commercial success and how audiences and industries often expect people to repeat what has worked before. Reflecting on his own career, he said, “I can’t say I’ve been stereotyped. I’ve done everything. I’ve played a villain, I’ve played crazy guys, serious films, this, that and the other. I’ve done everything. What tends to happen is whatever works commercially better, people start approaching you with that in mind, that this works with him. That applies even to the biggest of stars because the moment you become a commodity, they don’t allow you. That’s a sad place to be.” To illustrate his point, he referred to Amitabh Bachchan, saying, “There was a phase when nobody had been bigger than Mr Bachchan. There was a phase when Mr (Amitabh) Bachchan couldn’t do anything different because it didn’t work. Again, he was limited because the commercial aspects didn’t allow him to move. Now he’s doing the variations which he, as an actor, obviously wanted to do. The commercial aspects didn’t allow him to move.”
DISCLAIMER: This article is based on information from the public domain and/or the experts we spoke to
The actor also reflected on deliberately pacing his own career rather than overexposing himself. “As an actor, though I have done a lot of work. But you have to space yourself out. The moment you saturate yourself, then it becomes a problem because if you’ve done everything. But by the grace of God, I managed it just right. I’ve played a villain, I’ve played crazy guys, done serious films as well. Yet I feel there is a lot more left to explore in me.”
Looking back on why he never became one of Bollywood’s biggest stars in the 1990s, Jaaved suggested that talent alone is not enough. “I think it depends on how you’re packaged. There’s also PR involved because the industry has its own web. There are times when there’s a negative thing about you out there, so you need a reality check or a positive thing about you being put out. I failed to do that, in some ways. I was also not a part of any group.” His observations raise broader questions about how success, external expectations and public perception can influence career choices and personal fulfilment across professions.
Why success can sometimes feel limiting
Sonal Khangarot, licensed rehabilitation counsellor and psychotherapist, The Answer Room, tells indianexpress.com, “From a psychological perspective, success can create a paradox: the very thing that gives a person recognition can also begin to restrict them. Once someone becomes successful, people often start associating them with a particular image, performance or standard. Over time, the individual may feel that they are not simply expected to succeed, but to repeatedly recreate the same success.”
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She adds that this can lead to performance anxiety, fear of failure and what is sometimes referred to as identity foreclosure — when a person becomes overly identified with one successful role or version of themselves. They may begin avoiding risks or new opportunities because any deviation from what people already know them for can feel threatening.
“A healthy relationship with success involves separating one’s identity from one’s achievements. Success should be something a person experiences, not something they are constantly required to prove. Ultimately, growth means allowing yourself to change without interpreting every change as a failure of the person you once were,” notes Khangarot.
Balancing ambition with patience
Khangarot says that ambition is not the problem. In fact, ambition, focus and a desire to progress can be extremely healthy. The difficulty arises when a person begins to believe that their life or career has a fixed timeline that they must constantly keep up with. Many young professionals today are working with an internal sense of urgency — I need to achieve this by this age, earn this much by this time and reach the next level quickly. This can make the process of building a career feel like a race rather than a journey.
Psychologically, long-term career satisfaction requires us to tolerate delayed gratification and uncertainty. “Not every effort will produce an immediate result, and not every opportunity that looks like a setback is actually taking us backwards. Adaptability becomes important because careers rarely develop in a perfectly linear manner,” shares Khangarot.
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Why reinvention matters
Quick Quiz
See if you can answer this:
According to psychologists, what does healthy reinvention really mean?
A. Constantly changing careers whenever work becomes familiar.
B. Abandoning your old identity to stay relevant to other people.
C. Allowing different parts of yourself to grow through learning, new experiences and curiosity, while avoiding being defined by a single role.
D. Working harder and staying constantly productive to prevent burnout.
Reveal the answer
✅ Correct answer: C
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Khangarot mentions that healthy reinvention is less about dramatic career changes and more about continuing to grow. Learning new skills, taking on different projects, collaborating with new people or simply becoming a beginner again can help prevent stagnation. Psychologists also emphasise that taking time to reflect and recognising that constant productivity is not the same as success can protect against burnout and keep curiosity alive.
DISCLAIMER: This article is based on information from the public domain and/or the experts we spoke to
