I've been wondering about the act of self-destruction recently. Is self-destruction an undesirable behaviour by default? No, but we typically associate it with a sort of failure.
A funky case can be found in the ant species Colobopsis saundersi. Threatened by a predator, these soldier ants will squeeze themselves in order to pop open a gland, secrete a sticky goo, immobilise the threat, and thus defend the larger colony. They die in the process. Is this a failure or a success? Dying for the sake of others is called 'autothysis', or, according to Wikipedia, 'suicidal altruism'. I prefer the term 'altruistic suicide' — it's clearer.
Another aspect of self-destruction is obvious but intriguing all the same: you can self-destruct, but not in the same way that you can self-create. If you don't exist, you can't create yourself. But if you do exist, you can kill yourself. Self-destruction is asymmetrically able to 'do more' since you're destroying something which is already there, instead of creating something which isn't.
Self-destructing businesses
There's a category of businesses who operate to get rid of their current customers. For example, a company which helps people to lose weight by selling low-fat products is seeking to convert their customers (overweight people) to non-customers (healthy weight people, who no longer require their services). Consider too driving instructors, who are employed by non-drivers until they pass their driving exams, and then they are no longer employed.
Here is self-destruction, plain to see. These companies actually seek to remove their clientele, and if they are good companies (i.e. they succeed at their mission), they will do so. Typical companies don't want to lose any business, because that results in loss of profits.
Despite the regular removal of customers, these self-destructing businesses are able to survive. They depend on the everlasting presence of overweight people and people who can't drive. When they lose one customer, they replace them with another. Clearly it works, although as a fully long-term plan it seems paradoxical.