Human nature

I have often wondered why, given a particular situation, two people in the same situation react differently? Let's take the example of workplace - you would find all sort of people there. People who are overly aggressive, people who are a little aggressive, people who jump to a conclusion at the drop of a hat, people who couldn't care less about anything, confident people, scared people, indifferent people and so on. So, what makes people behave differently? Could it be their genetic code? or could it be the environment in which they were raised? could be that people are afraid of something? Taking an example 2 people could be afraid of being found to be technically incompetent yet one could go on the defensive and keep a low profile while the other could be aggressive and try to remove the deficiency. A third person could also be aggressive and pretend to know the subject and so on.

I feel, the bottom line is that all of us are insecure w.r.t something or the other be to work, finances, relationships etc etc. There is a scared little buddy sitting within each of us. Depending on this buddy's feelings, we act in one way or another.

Finally, I think all of us need to learn to face our fears. If you are afraid of swimming, get into the pool (not at the deepend though) :) If you are afraid to speak up, take a deep breath and do speak up. If you are afraid that people might mock you for technical incompetence, then take steps to rectify the same but in no situation should one remain fearful of what others might think or do. Face your fears and challenges and move forward. Lastly, the road to success does not include stepping on other people's toes... be collabrative rather than confrontationist. you will go far...

BTW, this was just a general post, before people start jumping to conclusions. :)