Acharya Prashant: See, the answer has to be multilayered. The first thing our friend said is that we should be aware of our strengths and weaknesses, which is all quite fine with a little caveat. Which is, that the very definition of strength or weakness is often quite weak, in the sense that it is a borrowed definition. One thing is that you are mistaken about yourself, because you don’t assess yourself at all. The other situation is that you do assess yourself, but on the parameters using the criteria provided by external forces: society, education, etc. The second situation is not far better than the first situation. There is a person, who is not self-conscious at all, does not assess or measure himself and there is another one, who is very particular about knowing his progress, his standing. But, how does he assess himself? By using the benchmarks, the criteria, the yardsticks, provided by others. Do you really want to assert that the second one is way better than the first one? Maybe marginally better. Marginally better, because he at least has the intention to know where he stands but there is no great difference, there is no dimensional difference. When you say, such is my strength, and this is the extent of my strength. How do you know that the thing you are talking about is your strength at all? Similarly, when you measure your weaknesses, how do you know that a particular thing is first of all a weakness? Measurements can come later. First thing is, what is it that you are measuring? Who told you, that it is a thing important enough to be measured and it is a thing that needs to be named as a strength or a weakness, a virtue or a vice? How?
Look around yourself, different cultures, different communities, different peoples; they all have different beliefs regarding what is valuable in life. If you have that, which they think of traditionally as valuable, they will call you a strong or a rich man. In certain cultures, for example, it is quite virtuous to be brash. If you are not brash you are a weakling. So, your brashness, your roughness, or rudeness has somehow become the criteria of your strength; one of the criteria at least. Now, obviously the thing is quite amusing. But there are millions, who are taking such a thing seriously. They are actively trying to wear the persona of a rough and tough individual. That is what their culture has taught them.
