I ran across to quote this morning, but I’d like to share – “If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.” When I first read it, I kind of nodded, yes. On second thought, I wondered why the second part would be true – success leads to true enemies. I knew it to be true going back to at least high school. I don’t remember grade school well enough to see if it was true then, but I do remember that because I was often on the honor roll in high school, some people were very unhappy with me. It seemed to me that their unhappiness was caused by jealousy. In college, people did not know anything about my grades until graduation approached. I graduated summa cum laude. Translated from the Latin, it means merely “with the greatest honor.” When the list of people graduating with honors came out, people who I consider friends suddenly didn’t want to associate with me.
I remember back in high school, those who were good at athletics had the most friends. It never occurred to me to dislike them. I think it was because I had no interest in playing things like football and basketball. I enjoyed watching them, but I had no desire to play them. I knew those who were good at sports had practiced them. They had a dedication to doing something admirable. That dedication grew out of a desire to be a good athlete.
We are all good at something. I remember meeting a motel maid. She was mentally challenged and part of a team. Some of them were good at making beds or vacuuming. In other words, each of them had a specialty. Together they formed a team that did what an unchallenged maid could do. The maid I met was very proud of how well she could clean toilets. They absolutely sparkled when she was done with them. In her pride, she had to show me how well she did her job. She was successful at her job.
We all want to show off something that we are successful at, no matter what it is. That shouldn’t earn us an enemy or enemies. On the other hand, we have all felt a moment of jealousy when we see or read about someone successful at something. We shouldn’t be. However, it seems to be built into human nature that jealousy will occur at times like that. We shouldn’t be. We should all be willing to share the pride of someone who is successful, even if it is just cleaning toilets.
