Hubris is often synonymous with pride, but it is pride of a particular kind. Hubris is the belief that one has risen above the gods and can therefore do no wrong. In Greek tragedy, hubris was a fault that invariably called down the wrath of Olympus, leading to misery and ruin for those cursed with it. Bellerophon, Odysseus, Achilles, and Oedipus all suffered for this fault. The story of Icarus is a prime example of this kind of pride. Blessed with his father's engineered wings, he ignored all the warnings he was given, and flew too close to the sun. It melted the wax that held his wings together, and he plummeted to his death.

Disney has flown extraordinarily high in the last decade and might have flown a bit too close to the Sun. Based on its financial situation, the company appears to be following Icarus. This week they announced the first round of layoffs that will ultimately result in 7,000 lost jobs. Unlike Icarus, the people at Disney didn't have a genius inventor like Daedalus guiding them. They had the wisdom of the crowd, and they, like Icarus, paid their advisors no mind. In fact, they did worse than simply ignore the crowd, a crowd from which they accrued considerable wealth. When Disney's products stopped making money, Disney didn't change course. Instead, they blamed the fans for many of the box-office failures over the last two years, rather than taking responsibility for a string of bombs. In some cases, Disney admitted to deliberately alienating a certain section of the population with the creative choices they made in shows that appeared on their streaming service.

But a business is never above the laws of supply and demand. In 2021, The Walt Disney Company was still riding the MCU with stock trading for over $200 per share. Today, a bargain-hunting investor can pick it up a share of Disney stock for $95 .

Of course, there's never just one reason for a company losing fifty percent of its value. Certainly, COVID had a role, as well as Disney's falling out with the government of Florida. But it was hubris that caused Disney to make movies that lost hundreds of millions of dollars and then blamed the fans for those losses. No matter how much money a company makes, it is suicide to discount the wants and needs of the customers, especially in a business as intensely subjective as entertainment.

Customers can be emotional. Purchasing decisions are often based more on emotions than on rational decision making. This tendency to choose with the heart rather than the head is the foundation for the entire marketing industry. Customers have this luxury because they have the choice. Businesses cannot afford to make decisions based on emotion. A company who believes their customers are wrong, and does so without the slightest sense of self-awareness, has decided it is not subject to the laws of nature and economics. A company which actively insults its own customers has chosen to fly too close to the sun, and there's only one direction to go when one is that high up.

Daedalus implored his son to approach his flight with a sense of balance, staying high enough to avoid the spray of the sea, and low enough to prevent the sun from burning them. Every business owner would be wise to heed those words. No matter how big you think you are, you're never bigger than the customers. Strive to balance the financial needs of your business with the needs of your customers. Balance risk and reward, and whatever you do, never place yourself above the customer. Even the Mouse isn't big enough to survive without them.