Ms.Shang Jin and Ms.Yao Qiang

Okay I am only here to take a 10 min break from my intense and boring CFA prep..I think my sight will seriously deteriorate because when I am busy studying I am reading a lot, and when I am taking a break I am also using my eyes too much (!). 

A little thought from an awful conversation last month. In Chinese  we describe a very motivated people either as shang-jin or yao-qiang. People usually use these two words together, but they are not entirely the same. Basically there is 'ambitious' (shang-jin) and 'competitive' (yao-qiang, literally means "aspire to be stronger"). 

I am the 'ambitious' type, I want to make a good living on my own, want to make the best out of all the available resources I have, want to be the best person that I can possibly be. It's a game with myself. 

Many people said 'you are so hard on yourself'. Yes, it gives me a sense of great pleasure to challenge myself and be stronger than what I saw in myself. 

And here is the other type: the super 'competitive' ones. Those people are just as hard-working as the ambitious type-as long as they are better than others they are happy. See? They live on a relative scale. They are the conformers to social stereotypes, i.e. 'you get good grades to go to school, and marry a good husband.' But what is good? It is not defined by them, as long as the society deems whatever they have better than others.  

I don't despise competitive people. Many of them are great as a matter of fact. 

The tragedy is to be surrounded by competitive people that cannot just mind their own business.They just have to ask so many peer comparison questions and throw a 'reality check' in people's face from time to time. 

"Is the company that your high school classmate working for more prestigious than yours? "
"What is the ranking of school that they went to compared to yours?"
"How much does your boyfriend make?" "Oh mine earns more."

The most important thing for me is to feel at peace with myself, not what others perceive. Are the super competitive people happy? I don't know. But good for them for feeling over the moon from being better than other people and ranking high in their social status. 

I hope they are indeed happy with their achievement, even if one day the perception of the mass alters. I really do.