being first, second and third

In business life, it is stressful to be the first in your sector. Creating new markets and innovating are costly processes fraught with unknown unknowns. You pave the way and the guy behind you effortless walks through it. He experiences drastically lower sales costs. He also has the liberty to improve on your product. After all, achieving the product-market fit becomes much easier after someone releases a draft version and people start using it.

Similarly, being the most beautiful girl in a social circle is actually a great curse. You attract so much noise that you end up making wrong mating choices.

In competitive sports, even being second sucks. Winning the bronze medal makes you feel great because you could have received no medal at all. Meanwhile the guy who got the silver medal is unhappy because he just missed the gold one.