Pride Makes us Blind to things we can Improve Imagine what would happen if some of the world's greatest inventors let their early achievements get to their heads. What if, for instance, Steve Jobs had rested on his laurels after creating the Apple II computer? Well, we likely wouldn't have iPhones or iPads today. So why is it that we tend to sit back and relax after achieving success? Pride doesn't just stop us from continuing to learn and achieve, it also makes us overly sensitive to criticism and deaf to warnings. Proud people are very prone to becoming defensive – or even aggressive – if someone tells them they aren't as special as they think they are, because their ego rests on this falsehood. Rather than face the fact that we're not the best in the world at what we do, many of us are more willing to fight anything that hurts our pride and ego. Even Benjamin Franklin got caught up in his own pride at one point. While visiting his hometown of Boston, one of the town's most respected figures, Cotton Mather, called out to him, shouting “Stoop! Stoop!” Franklin seemed to think he was above this gesture and ignored him, which was a foolish move – he walked straight into a low door-frame, knocking his head painfully! If we want to see past the blinkers of pride, we should consider, in every situation, how someone more humble would perceive things.