First he observes that the competition of the workplace is not nearly so serious as is usually imagined; failure does not result in death or starvation. People take the competition so seriously either because they do not realize they can take it less seriously, or because they believe that it would be dishonorable to slack off. "It is singular how little men seem to realize that they are not caught in the grip of a mechanism from which there is no escape, but that the treadmill is one upon which they remain merely because they have not noticed that it fails to take them up to a higher level." [page 40] "So long as he not only desires success, but is wholeheartedly persuaded that it is a man's duty to pursue success and that a man who does not do so is a poor creature, so long his life will remain too concentrated and too anxious to be happy." [page 42]
This result follows from our educational values: Americans value education only so far as it contributes to success, and have ignored the role of education in teaching us to appreciate the finer things in life. Consequently we have no idea what to do with success when we have it, other than keep racing to achieve more success. "Education used to be conceived very largely as a training in the capacity for enjoyment -- enjoyment, I mean of those more delicate kinds that are not open to wholly uncultivated people. ... Unless a man has been taught what to do with success after getting it, the achievement of it must inevitably leave him prey to boredom." [pages 44-45]
"It is not only work that is poisoned by the philosophy of competition; leisure is poisoned just as much. The kind of leisure which is quiet and restoring to the nerves comes to be felt boring. There is bound to be a continual acceleration of which the natural termination would be drugs and collapse. The cure for this lies in admitting the part of sane and quiet enjoyment in a balanced ideal of life." [page 47]