Three thoughts:<p>First, elites feel like losers because they define themselves as elite. "Elite" is a comparative description - <i>better</i> than almost everyone else. But that's a game where you can't win; you can only lose. If you're in the top 10%, you know someone who's in the top 1%. If you're in the top 1%, you know someone who's in the top 0.1%. If you're in the top 0.1%, you know someone who's in the top 1000 worldwide. And even if you're in the top 1000, you still lose as you compare yourself to others: "He's better at law. She's better at mathematics. He's got better connections." If you define your worth by comparison to others, all you can do is lose, because there's <i>always</i> someone to whom you lose.<p>Second, it's both a rigged game and a stupid one. The elites have created a game of competing to see who's elite. And they wrote the rules, and they wrote the rules so that <i>they win</i>. That means that you get to lose. But it's a stupid game anyway. Take social status, for instance. If you crack into the 400 who rule New York society, then you get to attend a bunch of social events so you can feel like an insider. That's great, I guess, but... if you don't accept the premise of the game, then it becomes very difficult to explain why you should care about playing. It's like Santa Claus. Once you don't believe, people have a really hard time convincing you that you <i>should</i> believe.<p>And third, part of this may be because many people think they're elite when they're not. They've been given participation trophies, and told that they're special, but in terms of elite competition, they're not. Then they get out of college and run into real elites with 30 years of experience.