Somebody ought to defend the workaholic. These people are unjustly accused, abused, and often termed sick or on the border of pathology. One-third of American business and commerce is carried on the shoulders of workaholics. The ratio might exist in art and science too. Workaholics are achievers, the excellers. There is a national conspiracy against excellence—an undue admiration of commonness and mediocrity. It is as though we are against those who make uncommon sacrifices because they enjoy doing something. Some popular psychologists say that the workaholic has an inferiority complex which leads to overcompensation. This is certainly not the case. Inferiority, or low esteem, describes laziness more accurately than it describes dedication. We do not seem to realize that very little excellence is achieved by living a well-balanced life. Edison, Ford, Einstein, Freud all had single-minded devotion to work whereby they sacrificed many things, including family and friendship. The accusation is made that workaholics bear guilt by not being good parents or spouses. But guilt can exist in the balanced life also. Consider how many “normal” people find, at middle age, that they have never done anything well — they are going to settle for less than what they could have become.