If you use success in your career to make up or compensate for feelings of defectiveness, then your sense of well-being may be quite fragile. Your whole sense of worth becomes built on your success. Any small deflation or failure may be enough to make you nervous. If something serious happens—if you get fired, go bankrupt, have a business reversal, or get snubbed by a higher-up—it throws you back into that shameful feeling.
