To paraphrase the Gospel, “Love your competitors, and pray for those who undercut your prices.” You would be nowhere at all without them.
Allan Watts, The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
I tend to be judgmental of those at work who take their work too seriously. I feel this way about bureaucrats (I work in government contracting so I meet many of them), but also about others who are smart and talented and want to play the internal political game of getting promoted and rising up in the ranks of their mega corporations.
I have to remind myself that I need these people in order to maintain my own identity as an entrepreneurial, independent, and contrarian thinker.
Once I remind myself of this, they don’t irritate me so much.
Remember that you need the people you don’t like, the people you despise. You need them because they help you define yourself via contrast. “I’m not like them, I am like this.”