How does other people’s stupidity hinder your progress? By making you lose your humbleness.

It’s easy to be humble when you are obviously more stupid and unwise than those around you. And when you’re humble, you try to learn as much as possible from other people, you try to get as much help as you can from other people. And you progress and become wiser.

As you become wiser, you start to think that there’s not much more that you can learn or get from other people. So you focus on looking inside, perfecting what you have, and doing it alone. You keep progressing, but your progress seems slower.

It’s hard to be humble when most people are obviously more stupid and unwise than you. As you lose your humbleness, you stop looking outside and keep looking inside, you start mocking other people you despise and stop making supporters.

You’ll get better if you practice correctly even if you’re arrogant. But sooner or later, you’ll get stuck and stop progressing. This is because there’re lessons you can only learn by looking outside. And because you need the help of others (unwise people included) to become better.

The master of a craft is the one who is over the phase of not looking outside. He learns from other people, even people stupider than him. He strives to keep his humbleness so that other people happily support him to become better. These are the things that make him master. These are the things that ensure his continual progress.

To be humble is not to think less of oneself, but to think of oneself less.

Being humble is not really about keeping your head low. It is about keeping your progress high. It is a commitment to get better.

Don’t let other people’s stupidity hinders your progress.

Be humble. Be kind. Be skillful.