True Success Comes From Sincere Humility
by Master Lee Feng San Shifu
Translated by Sophia Lui
Edited by Ric Meyers
A saying goes: “In good times, be humble; in bad times, lay low.” What does this mean? It means that, in good times we should practice humility, and in less than ideal conditions we should keep a low profile.
In my army days, I observed the following phenomenon. In our troops, there is a type of person who comes across as simple and naïve. Yet, strangely enough, they manage to work their way up easily and steadily. On the other hand, there are others who are very smart, yet they have difficulty rising up through the ranks. These people generally have a fear of losing out, and often bear bitter feelings of resentment.
Of course there is also another type of person who is rather annoying because of their lax and devil-may-care attitude. However, because they are able to charm others and make political alliances, they manage to rise to a certain level, but not any further. I have witnessed this phenomenon often enough.
The reason that I am telling you this is because I do not wish you to take an unnecessarily long road to learn life’s lessons. We should understand what it means to be humble. When we find that we are riding on the waves of success and feeling confident, we must always remember to stay humble.
And when times are difficult and we are feeling less confident, we must lay low and exercise self-restraint. The challenge for most of us is when we are feeling confident, we tend to become arrogant and self-indulgent. Conversely, when we are lacking in confidence, we become overbearing or else overwhelmed with self-pity.
If we do not pay good attention, feelings of inadequacy will overcompensate by turning into arrogance, and they will be much more difficult to deal with later on. This is because the older we get, the harder it will be to change ingrained habits. Even if we try, it will only be a superficial change, requiring much effort to keep up. And when we encounter challenges either from people or from the environment, we will be driven nuts by them.
People are quick to sense us, and so we must stay humble in good times, and keep a low profile when we experience setbacks. If we act brash when times are good and continue to be overbearing when times are down, we will only turn people off. Therefore we must change our bad habits — not just superficially but from the bottom of our being. If we try to get on by being manipulative or keeping up appearances, we will only create chaos in society, and finally we will fail as well.
“Stay humble in good times and keep a low profile in times of setbacks. Change bad habits through overcoming challenges.” — Lee Feng San Shifu