The passion to get ahead is sometimes born of the fear lest we be left behind.

Hoffer suggests that ambition is not always fueled by positive aspiration—curiosity, vocation, or a vision of excellence—but can arise from anxiety and social comparison. The “passion to get ahead” may be a defensive response to the threat of falling behind peers, losing status, or becoming irrelevant. Read this way, the quote critiques a competitive culture in which progress is measured comparatively rather than intrinsically. It also implies that fear-driven striving can be restless and compulsive: one runs not toward a chosen good, but away from imagined humiliation or exclusion. The remark fits Hoffer’s broader interest in mass psychology and the motives—often insecurity and resentment—that animate collective behavior.