“I do not wish for anyone's downfall. The world needs successful people. I just think of ways to add more value to myself, and wish that my adversaries would do the same.”

Another person’s success can feel threatening when life is treated as a contest with room for only one winner. Their progress then appears to reduce the value of our own.

Shared life works differently. The food, tools, knowledge, and services we depend on exist because other people succeeded at useful work. Their ability adds something that reaches beyond them.

Wishing for failure removes nothing from one’s own weakness and may destroy something the wider world could have used. A stronger answer is to grow in value as well. More people doing meaningful work can enlarge the whole rather than divide it, even when they do not like or agree with one another.