“I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.”
– Booker T Washington
There are some people that I should hate, because through their actions based upon their petty jealousies they economically harmed my children.
I will not lower myself and hate them. Rather, I pity them for their internal emptiness and need to hurt others to build themselves up in their mind. My business, my success posed no threat to them economically but their egos could not tolerate another succeeding in their arena and so they lied, using falsehoods to take bread from the mouths of my children.
But what sort of man would I be to allow their self-hatred to change me, to dampen my enthusiasm and joy? To return their evil with evil would be to double the darkness in the world. Only by putting out twice the light, 2X-ing the good I do to counter their harm can we even leave the world in a neutral position.
My children instead of seeing me seek revenge have learned about being the bigger man, about resilience and overcoming the obstacles instead of complaining and plotting. My kids saw me struggle but refuse to give in to hatred or to cut corners, to do the proper thing even when the results were stolen away and profited another. The lessons and examples of honest competition are more valuable than material wealth, for they inherit a sterling reputation instead of thirty pieces of tarnished silver.
Hate may be powerful, but it is draining and will damage more than your enemy. Do not sink to their level.