First: Intolerance is a form of ignorance which must be mastered before any form of enduring success may be attained. It is the chief cause of all wars. It makes enemies in business and in the professions. It disintegrates the organized forces of society in a thousand forms and stands, like a might giant, as a barrier to the abolition of war.
Second: Intolerance is the chief disintegrating force in the organized religions of the world, where it plays havoc with the greatest power for good there is on this earth; by breaking up that power into small sects and denominations which spend as much effort opposing each other as they do in destroying the evils of the world.
Now, let’s see how it affects you, the individual.
In my story, I think the lack of patience and not being able to tolerate even the meaningless situations has plagued me. For instance, living here in Thailand and seeing how customer service is, I give a particular second/minute threshold in getting service. If I don’t get the right service, or any in general, I will blow up.
In the workplace, we’ve all had that coworker that is “short-tempered” and get’s tense quite easily. This is because of their tolerance level.
I remember back in 2007 I took the bus twice within the same week and got the same bus driver. The first time I saw him, he said good morning. The second time he was extremely agitated; and at one point, I heard him yelling at a passenger. I heard passengers screaming, “f*** you bus driver!” People saying, “oh, I think he’s from New York.” LOL! These were good times, but it goes to show how the tolerance level on particular individuals is not good at all.
Here’s a story from Napoleon Hill’s book….
One day I was introduced to a young man of unusually fine appearance. His clear eye, his warm hand-clasp, the tone of his voice and the splendid taste with which he was groomed marked him as a young man of the highest intellectual type. He was of the typical young American college student type, and as I ran my eyes over him, hurriedly studying his personality, as one will naturally do under such circumstances, I observed a Knight of Columbus pin on his vest.
Instantly, I released his hand as if it were a piece of ice!
This was done so quickly that it surprised both him and me. As I excused myself and started to talk away, I glanced down at the Masonic pin that I wore on my own vest, then took another look at his Knight of Columbus pin, and wondered why a couple of trinkets such as these could dig such a deep chasm between men who knew nothing about each other.
All the remainder of that day I kept thinking of the incident, because it bothered me. I had always taken considerable pride in the thought that I was tolerance with all men; but here was a spontaneous outburst of intolerance which proved that down in my sub-conscious mind existed a complex that was influencing me toward narrow-mindedness.
This discovery so shocked me that I began a systematic process of psycho-analysis through which I searched into the very depths of my soul for the cause of my rudeness.
“Why did I abruptly release that young man’s hand and turn away from him, when you knew nothing about him?”
This is especially for every Thai in Thailand. Just yesterday that was a situation where this lady saw me, gave me a dirty look, and walked almost in the opposite direction, twisting her head over her left shoulder to avoid looking at me at all costs.
The same schools in Thailand that get my resume, look at the outstanding experience I have before turning to my photo — seeing that I’m “color” — and plunge my resume into the trash.
Yes, I’m calling out each and every last one of you. It’s like what’s happening on the roads here in Thailand. A country that has the highest fatality rate by percentage in the world because Thais now tolerate the stupendously fast-and-furious type driving without any reconciliation. It’s time to dive in!
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