21.5 ｜ Your Current "Ordinariness" Is Exactly Your Greatest Success
Section 5 | Your Current "Ordinariness" Is Exactly Your Greatest Success
This book is about success, but in this section, I must propose a very counter-mainstream, even completely anti-success-study viewpoint:
Your current ordinariness is exactly the best arrangement given by God to protect you.
We discussed earlier:
Success has two layers—external achievement and internal peace. Most people only realize the former and ignore the latter.
But if a person is not internally prepared yet forcibly obtains external success, the result is often catastrophic. This is not only not a blessing, but rather a form of destruction. Because it will not only cause internal and external conflict but even lead to Ego inflation, and then you will not only have a huge chance of losing your original success, but you might even end up burdened with massive debt or behind bars.
Why doesn't God let everyone succeed?
Why have you prayed for so long, yet still remain in an ordinary position?
Why do some people who are clearly inferior to you achieve "destined success"?
Because:
Ordinariness is not failure; it is protection. Failure is not punishment; it is Grace.
1. Story: An Entrepreneur "Destroyed by Success"—Adam Neumann (Founder of WeWork)
To avoid repeating previous stories, let’s switch to a new entrepreneur’s story.
Adam Neumann, the founder of WeWork, was once hailed as the "Godfather of Startups in a New Era." In his 30s, the valuation reached $47 billion. He was pursued globally, packaged by the media, and even revered by SoftBank as a prophetic figure who would change the world.
But his true destruction did not come from failure; it came from "not being able to bear the weight of success."
You will see three very typical phenomena:
- Ego Inflation: He began to believe that all sense of direction came from himself, becoming addicted to the narrative of "I am the chosen one."
- Judgment Shift: He made a large number of expansion decisions not based on reality, leading the company into massive losses.
- Internal Collapse: Success caused his relationships with family, team, and investors to deteriorate rapidly. He became impulsive, uncontrollable, and lost.
Later, WeWork’s valuation plummeted from $47 billion to less than $8 billion. He was ousted by the board, and what’s worse, he lost the good relationships and stable Self he had before he succeeded. The financial world still regards him as a "classic case of success destroying a person."
I have many such stories around me as well...
2. Psychological Analysis: Why Must Those Who "Cannot Carry Success" Be Protected?
Psychology provides a very clear explanation:
1. The Success Effect Research shows:
When a person suddenly obtains success that exceeds their internal structure, their self-evaluation will instantly inflate by 30%–50%.
This is a confirmed cognitive bias. So success is not a reward, but a powerful stimulant.
If the dosage is too high, it will lead to a rupture in the mental structure.
2. Goal Substitution When people suddenly succeed, they automatically replace their "true pursuit" with: a superior Self. Therefore, they become
Obsessed with "face," fond of controlling others, and deeply concerned about their image in other people's minds. They begin to become extremely conceited, extremely self-centered, and deeply care about whether others respect and worship them. They might even become enraged because others did not treat them in the way they thought they deserved. They start to look down on old friends, and become superstitious that everything can be solved with money or their own strength and power.
This is completely unconscious.
In other words: Success makes it very easy for people to lose themselves.
3. Structural Lag Caused by Rapid Ascent Psychology believes:
If a person’s external status rises too fast while their internal maturity cannot keep up, a "tear" occurs.
The results of this tearing include:
- Higher anxiety
- Greater powerlessness
- Greater susceptibility to addiction
- Greater difficulty in finding happiness
- Total deterioration of interpersonal relationships
This is exactly why—
Ordinariness, in many cases, is "safer" than success. Because ordinariness precisely proves: your current psychological structure matches your life, and you will not collapse due to overload.
3. All Our Circumstances Are the Best Arrangement
Many people feel they have unrecognized talent and are inferior to others, but in reality, the life each of us is living now is God's best protection for us.
Because our internal energy, spiritual maturity, and degree of Ego-loosening are not enough to carry a greater success.
Our current life is the best arrangement corresponding to our internal state; we just haven't realized it.
A person who "cannot carry success" manifests through three types of signs:
- Ego is too strong and cannot be loosened;
- Will inevitably attribute credit to themselves after success;
- Success will directly lead to loss of control, expansion, greed, and distorted judgment.
Therefore, if such a person suddenly succeeds, there is only one result:
Destruction. It’s like giving a thirteen or fourteen-year-old child $1 million in cash; it’s not a blessing, it’s poison.
The reason God lets many people be temporarily unsuccessful is because:
He is protecting you from being destroyed by success. He is waiting for you to be ready before giving you greater power.
You can go a whole lifetime without modifying or submitting, and God has given you the life corresponding to your unwillingness to change—the ordinary life you despise.
4. Why Is "Ordinariness" Also a Divine Success?
- God keeps you in ordinariness to ensure you are not destroyed by external achievements.
- The reason you feel ordinary is that your internal spiritual maturity is still matching the external world.
- Ordinariness is not your failure; it is God’s way of keeping you safe.
- True success comes from new spiritual energy entering your body, not from working hard in exchange for it.
Success requires Spirituality to carry it, not knowledge or ability to carry it. In other words:
Ordinariness is God’s greatest tenderness toward those who are not yet ready.
