Stepping On Others To Succeed
Please consider the following quote and place your thoughts about it within your reply:
"Do not hold the delusion that your advancement is accomplished by crushing others."
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero - (106-43 B.C.) Roman Statesman, Philosopher and Orator
Well, there's a difference between stepping on people to get ahead and "crushing" them. People may get pushed aside, but I don't think it happens often that people are actually destroyed in the process. Of course, I don't really deal in the big corporate world; perhaps I'm wrong. It's bad enough with us little businesses
I can say that I have done all my advancing without stepping on the backs or heads of those around me. I know how it feels to be stepped on to get a head for a little bit. I know that all those who thought they would use my shoulders to give them a boost up landed hard on their backs as I stepped by them. I may be in a job that does not lead me far up the ladder but I am happy where I am at.
Name: Cindy
Country:
Title: Advancement
Comments: Unfortunately, Advancement can be attained by crushing others, but one does not get respect or true success this way. These people just don't have a conscience, can't be trusted and are selfish, lowly people.
Name: Victor
Country:
Title: Stepping on others
Comments: It seems almost to be the zeitgeist in American that pointing the finger and making specious allegations elevates the accuser. If one is the victim of public character assassination you are in a position where you have to defend and disprove claims that are untrue. This is more difficult than it sounds; as once you acknowledge the attack, you yourself give it some validity. It's quite the quagmire and has become a huge societal problem. Many malicious people are exploiting this opportunity to sway a naive population. It seems that we only pay attention to the individual who screams the loudest, regardless of the message.
Is impossible to be a successful individual without causing others to fall. Unless I'm the only person in the world aiming to a certain position or goal, which is very unlikely, my success will always come at the expense of somebody else and this is true both for entrepreneurs and employee. If I want to have a higher position in a company, it means that the person actually in charge of that office will lose it and all the other candidates will fail. The same company will always try to get a bigger share of the market which means "Steal" customers from the other competitors. The bigger our success, the more the people that will suffer because of it. Unavoidable.
Others may not have to fall, they might just stay where they are without progressing but that may not be your fault. Is it someone's fault if they were born geniuses and others were not? Should the genius be kept back so the average thinkers can progress? What kind of world would that be? A boring mundane one.
Somebody will always fall, Fair. Having success means getting for yourself, or your company, something that others already have. Is very rare that, when you aspire to a better position, it will be created from scratch for you: you have to take it from somebody else. Most of the times, when you send your CV to a company, you are suggesting them to hire you and fire that old not-so-productive worker (specially in small companies). In the same way, if you open a small business in your town and you start making money is because your customers are not buying anymore from your competitors: if you sell a lot of hamburgers, another hamburger seller will not have the money to pay his house rent. As your company grows, some of your competitors will get bankrupt.
Is impossible to avoid it, not in a capitalistic system. Communism tried to provide a solution to this problem and we all know how it ended up.