It is the technical term for something we all know about: fear of failure.
However, is there a word for fear of success?
Because sometimes during my shitty assistant job I was pretty sure I had it. I was afraid of being good at my job because I thought if I was too good I’d never get promoted and be consigned to assistantland forever. And it’s possible I stayed at my job, despite the tons of yelling and throwing-of-things and general office abuse, because I didn’t think I deserved better. A crap job is kind of like an abusive relationship, and I stayed in it way longer than I should have. So, that brings me to…
I’ve never had a fear of success or of failure, but that’s landed me unemployed twice. Once by a boss who didn’t like that I knew more than him and the second time due to the economy. Nothing like that to get rid of the fear of being fired/layed off.