Writing about Microsoft earlier today got me thinking more deeply about the company. (The image is from the Pioneer Theater Co., at the University of Utah.)

A decade ago Microsoft reached a tipping point. Maybe this came with its release of Windows 95. It was obvious in its obsession over destroying Netscape.

Before 1995 Microsoft was about creating capabilities for others. Since then its mission has been embracing and extending, bringing the great ideas of others into its own operating system, destroying rather than creating niches.

It all sounds like a Jon Stewart set-up. "Aw, Bill, it used to be about the world domination." But in truth, at some point, people do come to dominate their worlds.

And then it all starts to go wrong.

What's true for companies is also true for people. For Michael Jackson it was probably his 1984 record Thriller. He was the King of Pop. He had it all. He could indulge. He did.

And in that moment he began his fall.

For successful companies this tipping point is usually reached after the original business objectives are achieved. (The vast majority of companies never reach it -- this is the beauty of capitalism.) Once Wal-Mart had brought the city's best prices out to the small town, it went from being a liberator to a dominator.

Many of the great tragedies have this plot. Think of Evita on the Casa Rosso, spinning her conscious social climbing as an unconscious Cinderella story. It's the point at which MacBeth starts.

Satiation sounds like a coward's way out, but it is in the end the best way out of this tragedy. Find another mountain. Start giving it away. People can do this. Elton John did this after he got sober. (He was quoted saying this on The Daily Show last night.) Gordon Moore does this with his foundation. On a personal level I think this is where Bill Gates is right now.

But how does a corporation deal with this problem? Capitalism doesn't answer the question. Either companies become trusts and the economy reaches a climax state, or they over-reach and fall, or they become cranky old institutions, resistant to change, waiting for destruction. GE and IBM are exceptions. They changed their goals, and renewed themselves in the process.

There are few happy endings.

Once you reach your destination, you must either start a new journey or start to die.

That's the hard truth.

I guess I should feel fortunate. I'm still hungry. I haven't reached my goals. I'm neither rich nor famous. I may never be either. So I keep working, hard, keep trying to climb, to gain audience, to gain influence, to gain mindshare.

Once I saw this as a curse.

It is in fact a blessing. If you haven't yet reached your goals, consider yourself blessed.