Dirty Deeds: Succeeding by Causing the Failure of Others
There are certain aspects of Human Nature that I have just never been able to wrap my head around.
Now, I'm as competitive as the next person, and will work my butt off — be it at a business or some other endeavor — to be not only my own best, but also to be the best to whatever degree it's possible.
However — often to my detriment, it seems — I believe in my interpretation what what I call a "fair game," or "fair play."
The part of Human Nature I struggle to understand is the minds of those who want to succeed, or win, at something by causing the failure of their competitors. I don't get it, because why not just be your OWN best?
And the part I really don't understand are those personalities who don't even consider it "a success" if they are merely number one, UNLESS they have destroyed or sabotaged all their competition as part of their success.
In other words, winning doesn't even count (in their minds) unless they've destroyed everyone else.
When I see something like that, I can't help but feel that I am looking at someone with a mental illness.
That said, it's not an unusual way for people to conduct themselves; I remember even from high school sports how there were some who would sabotage others... and they would see nothing wrong with that, citing merely that they were willing to "do whatever it takes" to succeed.
Unsportsmanlike conduct, anyone?
I experienced similar things while in business; business owners who would actively spread false rumors about competitors, and engage in shady dealings to prevent competitors from making deals. While I had a store, I was even on the receiving end as an unnamed competitor had somehow persuaded a mutual vendor that my business was going under... as a result of which a crucial order was delayed.
The question that invariably comes to my mind is "why not just do your own best?" followed by "if you already know that your best isn't going to be good enough, why are you even participating?"
Some people refer to the natural world and point out that dominant male lions often kill their own male cubs to avoid being challenged for superiority. That's nice, but conversely male wolves are exemplary fathers who help raise and are fiercely protective of their pups, of both genders.
I suppose that makes me more of a wolf, than a lion?
I think that perhaps what bugs me about it is the element of destruction rather than building. The world is hard enough to navigate without asshats who want to tear others down.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you're having a great week!
How about YOU? Do you like setting goals and then checking back to see how you did? Or are you more of a "go with the flow" person? Have you any goals for this 4th quarter of 2020? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20201229 23:22 PST
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The question that invariably comes to my mind is "why not just do your own best?" followed by "if you already know that your best isn't going to be good enough, why are you even participating?"
Leftist mentality in a nut shell.
What happens if the competition was intent on destroying your business for the acquisition of power? (like the left must do to realize their socialist ambitions).
Do you ignore them - or try to bury them? (as they are surely trying to bury you)
Ignoring them only allows them to proliferate - to eventually gain power. And then bury you.(see academia, common purpose, ngo's etc. over this last three decades)
Burying them...well...buries them.
Edit - this wasn't have go at you matey - (the first part of the reply!) I realized it might have read like that. oops..
Stop being a prick trying to sabotage other people's posts you commie
Pffft- it was intended as social commentary on the psychological positions of tyrants......
Well, you know how it is... I am your neighborhood mentally ill-commie-hippie-socialist-chaos monger, after all!
But seriously, though... as I seem to remember you've pointed out yourself, corrupt lefties and righties are pretty much cut from the same cloth, although they give different "excuses" for their actions. The problems always seem to happen where the "clean" (or ideological?) version of an approach/philosophy collides with the corruptibility and foibles of human nature or even mental illness.
If Farmer Bob seriously considers that poisoning Farmer John's better potatoes is the appropriate path to selling more potatoes at the farmer's market, something is (at least in my opinion) WRONG with that equation. Sure maybe Farmer Bob wants "power" over the potato supply... and the way to combat that is to retaliate and "bury" Farmer Bob. Now there are NO potatoes at all, and the entire village starves. How is that USEFUL?
And that's just a question, and my NO means an implication that "the government" should be in charge of the means of production.
For some reason I've never actually experienced that personally, I'm glad to say.
Fortunately, there aren't that many of them about... I just happen to have crossed paths with a couple or three, and I would have to say they were at least a little mentally ill.
Two family's live in a field , one starving and one not , for they have a milk cow .
An angel appears to the starving family , it gives them one wish to become true .
They wish there neighbor cow would die .
Why ??? , because envy and greed blind good judgement .
p.s. not my wisdom , an retired Greek cheep herder told me this on a mountain site overlooking the Ionian Sea while the sun went down sipping a beer . ;-)
It does seem to reflect much of the world driven by envy. Instead of wishing for a cow of their own, they instead wish for the death of the other's cow... destroy instead of build.
You asked about goal-setting. Over the years I have tended to be more of a go-with-the-flow kind of person, but now I am getting closer to senior citizen status and find that writing down goals helps me remain more aware of what I am doing. Even if I don't meet those goals, or if they are distant future goals, at least I thought it through and wrote it down. I look at goals differently than a to-do list.
I must confess that I have been writing things down since I was a teenager, in large part because I have a lousy short-term memory. But there's also something very satisfying about being able to revisit your physical goals list and scratch off things you actually accomplished.
Thanks for stopping by!