The Burden of Being Better
How Strength Became A Sin
Once upon a time, being strong was a virtue. Being sharp, capable, decisive…these were things to be admired. People sought out the bold to lead, to build, to create something lasting. But somewhere along the way, the rules changed. Now? Strength is suspect. Success is selfish. If you’re competent, you’re the villain. If you win, you must have cheated. And if you have power, you’re expected to apologize for it constantly. Preferably in a long-winded LinkedIn post where you cry about your privilege and promise to do better.
Weak people convinced the strong that they should feel guilty for being strong. And they’ve been milking that scam for all it’s worth. They’ve decided that:
If you work harder, you’re “privileged.”
If you make smart decisions, you’re “lucky.”
If you take risks and they pay off, you must have scammed someone.
Every win is suspicious. Every success needs to be audited for fairness. If you have something others don’t, the assumption isn’t that you earned it. It’s that you took it and because you took it, it can be taken right back. It justifies their desire to steal from the productive.
This isn’t just a shift in attitude; it’s a calculated power move. The weak don’t want to rise to the level of the strong. That’s hard. That takes effort. Instead, they’d rather guilt-trip you into lowering yourself down to their level. To make you hesitate, second-guess, and ultimately, stop moving forward altogether. If you do rise up, they feel justified in taking what you’ve managed to gain. “Redistributing” it. Just to bring you back down to their level once again. And I’m not talking about the actual weak. I’m not speaking about the ones who were dealt a true shit hand or are weak in their physical vessel (you’ll find people like that are usually some of the strongest), no I’m talking about the weak of will.
These weak people didn’t seize power in a grand, dramatic battle. There was no coup, no revolution. They just exploited a simple, glaring flaw in strong people: the desire to be good. They realized that capable people actually care about doing the right thing. That they don’t want to be perceived as unfair, cruel, or oppressive. And so they took that sense of morality, stretched it, warped it, and turned it into a leash. Productive, strong people do feel a sense of duty to take care of the truly weak. To help others who ultimately cannot help themselves. So, by claiming themselves as weak, these people have played the ultimate trump card.
Suddenly, leadership became “oppression.” Success became “exploitation.” Wealth became “greed.” And slowly but surely, the strong started backing down, apologizing, walking on eggshells. Because if they didn’t? They were called heartless. Evil. Cancelled. And what happened when the strongest voices were silenced? The loudest voices took their place. And the loudest people are almost never the most competent.
At its core, this whole operation is a defense mechanism for the mediocre. If they can convince you to hesitate, apologize, and self-sabotage, they don’t have to compete with you. If they can keep you feeling guilty, they don’t have to rise to your level. They don’t feel powerful, so they tell you power is bad. They don’t create, so they tell you creation is selfish. They don’t take risks, so they call risk-takers reckless. They make weakness a virtue, and strength a sin. They convince you that winning is ugly and self-sacrifice is noble, but, conveniently, they never volunteer themselves for the chopping block.
That’s the beauty of this whole con. The people yelling “privilege” the loudest? They sure as hell aren’t giving up their own luxuries. They’re not opting out of power. They just want you to do it. They want the throne empty, so they can sit in it. Here’s the thing: You don’t owe them your guilt. You don’t owe them your success. You don’t owe them your energy. You don’t owe them an apology for being capable.
What you owe to yourself and to the people who actually matter is to be as strong as possible, for as long as possible. Because the world isn’t suffering from too much strength. It’s suffering because too many strong people have been bullied into submission. So if you’re sitting on your hands, afraid to take up space, afraid to speak too loudly, afraid to fully own your power—knock it the hell off.
No more hesitating. No more guilt. No more slowing down so weaker people feel comfortable. You were never meant to blend in. Build something great. Lead. Win. And let them choke on their own mediocrity.
Elizabeth Duffy