Every human being, through the process of growth from childhood, or through many hardships and adversities, comes to acquire diligence. And the greater the obsession born of inferiority—the desire not to fall behind others but rather to surpass them—the more diligent a person inevitably becomes. Many people, from an early age, develop diligence as a habit in order to avoid scolding, by calculating and acting more quickly than others. Others immerse themselves in work as an obsession, using it as a way to forget the problems, difficulties, pains, and sorrows before them, and in this way diligence becomes ingrained. For in the very moments they lose themselves in work, they can temporarily forget their suffering, and so they throw themselves into work with greater intensity, and thus naturally become diligent. Many people also learn diligence through the restless pursuit of accomplishments that will earn them recognition and elevate their standing, breaking even into their sleeping hours to chase achievements. The larger the obsession born of inferiority, the more diligent they become.
However, those who rely upon their diligence are often more prideful and obstinate than others, for they believe that through their diligence they have preserved and accomplished much. These individuals carry great pride and self-confidence in their work. Yet the greater their pride, the more they inevitably acquire the habit of looking down on others. Likewise, they rationalize their past mistakes and failures with delusions and falsehoods, conveniently forgetting them, while remembering only their successes, and so they view themselves as nearly perfect. Their excessive pride in their own work and opinions breeds unhealthy obsession, wide emotional swings, and inflated arrogance. This is the essential habit born of victim mentality.
The more absolute one’s pride, the less one filters or examines the rightness or wrongness of his tears and wounds. Without questioning at all, he treats his own tears as pure, good, and righteous, though in reality the tears of man are usually born not of a good conscience but of unfulfilled desires, dreams, and cravings of the flesh. Nevertheless, all people regard their own tears as absolutely good and just.
Moreover, their obsession with their own work and opinions is extreme. Many people cannot distinguish between obsession and focus. Obsession, properly defined, is the stubbornness produced by pride and arrogance, born of selfish desire that absolutizes one’s own views and convictions. Focus, however, comes from the conscience—from rational thought free of selfish desire—springing from sincerity rather than arrogance. Obsession born of thought breeds strife, quarrels, hatred, falsehood, pride, envy, lust, and emotional turbulence. But focus born of conscience does not rely on fleshly wisdom, nor absolutize one’s own opinions, but rather respects and receives the diverse perspectives of others with sobriety, leading to rational understanding. True focus is born of humility, not from an arrogant insistence that one’s own opinion must always be right.
Of course, most people do not openly claim their thoughts are perfect, but though they admit they may be wrong, in practice they still act as though their opinions were infallible. Thus, instead of weighing opinions to find the best solutions, they make their emotions the priority—feeling good if their ideas are accepted, and angry or resentful if not. Those who rely on their diligence often fall into this, because their victim mentality makes them excessively absolute about themselves, and so their obsession with themselves grows. Thus they cannot coldly and fairly weigh right and wrong, but instead assert their own views as unquestionably correct.
When others do not conform to their will or desires, they unconsciously come to hate, envy, and judge them, continually holding others responsible for their own problems, while demanding that others satisfy their desires. The greater their victim mentality, the more absolute their self-centered judgments become, to the point that they fail to recognize that their tears are not the fruit of pure conscience but of selfish desire. Yet they parade their tears and sorrows as righteous, demanding others acknowledge their struggles and yield to their wishes. At the same time, they rationalize their own wrongs and offenses, forgetting them completely, while inflating the faults of others like snowballs, treating them with hostility and contempt.
The greater the victim mentality, the less a person remembers his own faults and mistakes, and so he continually repeats them. Because he unconsciously views himself as perfect, he refuses to admit or even recognize his errors. On the other hand, he carefully stores away the faults of others in memory, to be pulled out as weapons in disputes, rationalizing himself and making excuses. Forgetting his own sins while holding on to those of others is the very essence of man’s evil thoughts. When such delusion grows unchecked, it causes immense harm to others. Even psychological illnesses such as pathological jealousy, suspicion, and depression can be the result of such obsessive tendencies born of hypersensitivity.
Human diligence, in truth, often appears most strongly in those with deep-seated inferiority complexes. Those who desperately crave attention and recognition, whose pride and inferiority drive them, often push themselves to attempt more than their limits allow. Out of the desire to prove themselves, they take on excessive amounts of work, driven by the hope of recognition, respect, and love as compensation for past wounds of neglect or scorn. This creates a dual habit: fearing work due to insecurity, yet simultaneously throwing themselves into more work to display their worth.
Such people, driven by excessive competitiveness and inferiority, cannot help but harbor hostility toward others, especially those they perceive as rivals. The determination not to lose stirs excessive ambition, which drives them to take on more work than they can bear. Yet often this leads not to success but to despair and discouragement when they inevitably fail. Such disappointment spreads into resentment against themselves and against others connected to them, leading to discontent, bitterness, hatred, and quarrels. Excessive desire and obsession with work breed dissatisfaction when others do not help them, and this frustration quickly escalates into conflict.
In the end, excessive inferiority fosters a narrow, closed, biased, selfish way of thinking. Thus, self-made individuals who boast of their diligence often become rigid, obstinate, competitive, hardened, calculating, and dismissive of others, seeing only themselves and absolutizing their own thoughts and judgments.