As horrible as it sounds, malicious people enjoy other people’s misfortune. Not only do they actually like it when others fail, but they actually hope that it won’t be the last time. If they’re pretending to be your friend, they will ignore your efforts at success and even discourage you. They’ll quickly pinpoint and highlight why things won’t go your way. Worse yet, evil people will add fuel to the fire and try to make the situation worse in any way they can. They see other people as rivals or competition, threatening their own success, so they will find ways to sabotage other people’s performance and set them up for failure. They will undermine other people by highlighting their mistakes, demeaning their achievements, directly challenging them and putting them on the spot during meetings, or crack a joke at their expense. If you know someone like this, keep your distance unless you want to find yourself in the center of the fumes.
