Let’s talk life: Nobody Wants You to Succeed

I am beginning a new series where I will write a post every day. It is more about me trying to document random lessons as they come to me on a daily. I am not trying to inspire or preach to anyone. On the contrary, it is me speaking to myself. If it radiates off and you find it useful in your own life, then that’s great. Otherwise, whenever I write, I write to gain clarity on things, to improve my thought process and to document these thoughts.

One of the hardest facts to learn in life is that nobody wants you to succeed. Almost everyone is hoping you fail or you are less successful than they are; because your success threatens many. When you succeed, you remind many of their inadequacies; it is an attack on their egos. That’s why many people tend to shoot down your ideas, that’s why they will give you a million reasons why things are impossible, why they won’t work out, why everything to do with crypto currencies today is a scam, why it’s a bubble and will burst soon.

I really never ask people for advice on whether I should pursue an idea or not. It is of no use. If I bounce an idea off them, it’s just to unsettle them. Or it’s because I am trying to market something I have already executed. Whether it is your siblings or friends, none of these wants you to succeed.
You go out to a night club with friends, see a beautiful girl. You decide to approach her. All of your friends are hoping she will reject you. Because her accepting you is a reminder of their own failure to approach, it stings them so hard, it reveals their weaknesses.

And it is not their fault; we are wired that way with mean genes. People may want you to succeed but not to a level that surpasses them. They all want to be above you. So have this at the back of your mind that your success threatens people and disturbs their ego.

Because when you succeed, people are reminded of all the opportunities they failed to take, the risks they ran from. And to realize that an ordinary man like you took those risks is something they hate to see or hear. That’s why people who knew the old you will always find it hard to believe in the new you. Their cognitive dissonance can’t accept that change. Nobody wants you to succeed because it will shatter their reality that one could break out of mediocrity. For masses this is a tough pill to swallow.