There are said to be 4 types of horses in life.  Excellent ones, Good ones, Poor ones and Bad ones.  The excellent horse runs fast in a race without any prompting from the whip, a good one runs faster when it hears the whip, the poor one when the whip hits it, and the bad one only after repeated strikes of the whip.

In the dojo students always want to be the excellent student, failing that they will settle for being the good one, the poor students aim to become good and no one wants to be the bad student.

However, if you train karate in the right way with the correct attitude, it does not matter whether you are the best one or the worst one.  In your very imperfections, you will find the basis of your firm, way seeking mind.  Those students who find the physical training easily, take more time to obtain the true way, the actual feeling, the marrow of karate.  But those students who find great difficulties in practising will find more meaning in it.

As a Sensei, students who are athletic in the beginning stage can be a pleasure to teach, as the progress fast, learn techniques easily and have good form.  However, the poorer students are more of a challenge, taking more time to learn sometimes even what could be seen as the simplest of movements.  Roll on a year later and in many of the cases, the students who found karate easy, have long since quit and given up, where those students who found it a challenge, are still persisting, determined to improve, having developed a love of karate.

So strive to be the best you can be, but not in comparison to others.  Cos in karate, as in life, maybe the bad horse is the excellent horse and the excellent horse has already quit.