Johnson identifies entitlement as the primary psychological barrier that keeps high-achievers stuck at the top of their S-curves. Entitlement, in her framework, is not about arrogance. It is about a subtle shift in the relationship between effort and expectation. At the bottom of the curve, the relationship is correct: the person knows they have not yet earned success and invests accordingly. At the top, something shifts. The person has earned their position through years of hard work. They are good at what they do. And gradually, often unconsciously, they begin to feel that this earned position entitles them to continued rewards without the continued investment that earned it in the first place. This manifests as a reduced willingness to be a beginner again. Jumping to a new S-curve means returning to the bottom: being visibly less capable than the experienced practitioners around you, not knowing what you do not know, making the beginner mistakes that you left behind years ago. For a high achiever with a strong reputation, this is genuinely uncomfortable. Johnson argues that battling entitlement requires developing what she calls an explorer's mindset: the genuine curiosity and comfort with not-knowing that characterises people at the beginning of a learning curve. The high achiever who can be a genuine beginner, without embarrassment and without entitlement, is the one who stays on the growth path rather than the plateau.