Pride

By Darold Kelly
Introduction
• Pride –noun (noun, verb, - prided, priding. ) – a high or inordinate opinion
of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as
cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc.

This trait is one of the many characteristics many people find positive to
possess. Arrogance is usually looked down upon though it is a direct result
of pride. In fact, here’s a couple of very interesting statistics.

• In a survey of faculty at the University of Nebraska, 68% rated themselves

in the top 25% for teaching ability.
• In a similar survey, 87% of MBA students at Stanford University rated their
academic performance as above the median.
• In ratings of leadership ability 70% of the students put themselves above
the median and in ability to get on well with others 85% put themselves
above the median and 25% rated themselves in the top 1%.
Thesis

Pride paves the way for you to travel to the ends of

the earth, trampling every relationship and
possession of value to prove everything to no one
while deceiving you into believing it was worth it.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
• The illustration to the left shows a chart of the wants
and needs of humans. Maslow’s chart shows how
humans pursue higher wants and/or needs as their
lower levels are satisfied.

• Pride is a trait gained through having your basic

physiological needs sufficiently satisfied to a point in
which getting the basic needs to survival isn’t
problematic.

• If you take a closer look at the second level, you’ll see

self-esteem, confidence, achievement, respect of others,
and respect by others. This is proper location of pride,
though this trait deserves to be non existent.

• When the lower levels – friends and family threaten the

esteem, esteem is often deemed over love and
belonging. Pride is prevalent among teenagers, whom
are desperate for love and belonging. Since most
already have family, they look to and for friends for
acceptance among their peers. Some feel as though
their aren’t getting any love or belonging in their
families and look to friends to replace them.

• For arrogance, fear is usually at the root of such

problems. An arrogant person is usually very fearful that
others will think less of them, thus they overcompensate
by provoking the idea that they are better than the
others. Teens, whom are being supported by their
family, are driven to value their pride more than their
family because they’ve grown to take it for granted. This
trait to a certain degree is in ever human being and will
pave the way for you to value it over your lower levels.
This trait is in adults as well to a lower extent express
the same problem. Some even go as far as quitting their
job because of their bosses attitude.
 Confidence VS Pride
Though pride and confidences have similar ideals, there is one key part of
both that distinctively distinguishes the two.

Confidence is optimism towards doing well in achieving a goal in comparison

to yourself, whereas pride is doing well in achieving a goal in comparison
to others.

This may bring about the question – “Why does it matter? “

Confidence paves the way for you to do and satisfy your for yourself. This way,
you strive to be better than your self – allowing you to become better
versus thinking you are already among the best and making excuses for
why you aren’t the best already. Pride also is an indirect result of being
naturally good at something. Though most people find talent in at least
one thing, that does not necessarily mean you are the best, or anywhere
near closed to it.
Result of Confidence
• Having confidence will void the fear of looking bad in
front of others because you are doing it for yourself.
Doing for yourself will pave way to you naturally to
follow the order of Maslow’s chart and put your
family and friends needs over your own ego. This will
not only lead to a better relationship with your family
and friends, but it will also keep you from putting
your health and well being in danger.