When facing very high pressured situations, you have two options available to you.

 1- you can cave to the pressure, get burned up by it and release your energy. That usually means adding CO2 and other not so pleasant gasses out to your environment.

Those  tend to be the people who are bitter by life, angry by circumstances, and hardened in a negative way by the events that shaped their lives. And just like burning coal is great to power industry, the impact on people can be pretty rough from all that global a warming and acid rain stuff that can follow.

2-You can rise to the occasion, learn from the situations, build better networks, grow from the trial and tribulation, and come out a diamond of inspiration for others to follow.

These are the people you often feel are heroic in their ability to overcome adversity. These are the role models we want to follow and encourage children to follow. Radiant positive vibes just seem to follow or emanate from these people. They reflect the best of humanity

Sure, the analogy is not perfect. There are many great clean powerful uses of coal. We do need coal. There are sometimes many bloody messes that lead to the rise of a priceless diamond.

How does this related to the hypothesis?

When you hang around a lot of coal, there is little incentive to aspire to become a diamond. If you stay in the pressured situations of life, you might eventually become a diamond. However , more than likely, the pressure will cause some level of crumbling…making it easier for mining.

That in turns means it’s easier for situations to extract your energy. People who often find themselves feeling like they can’t influence their circumstances.. tend to stay in them… and burn out because of their circumstances.

When you hang around a lot of diamonds, you understand how diamonds are made, formed, and how they become of great value. You’re more likely to endure more positively the hardships of life and work to find a way out to become a diamond yourself.

Often, these people are practical if not optimistic and push towards solutions instead of giving up and settling. While not all diamonds will get discovered, when they are, their luster and clarity shines very brightly. Even when not uncovered, they help influence others to become diamonds nevertheless.

What this basically means… as a lump of coal.. have at least one person in your life that’s a diamond. That is all that’s necessary as a catalyst to push the formation of new diamonds…(seed diamond)…again, imperfect application of the science for making a point.

If you’re a diamond already, then, keep influencing others to become their own diamonds. If you’re a lump of coal, don’t despair. You’re of great use and value too and there is the option of becoming a diamond if you so desire.

That’s the he hypothesis in a nutshell.. you have the option to move forward from being a lump of coal… not that there is anything wrong with being coal itself.

After all, they both are carbon based items initially and eventually. How you opt to be is up to you. The only major difference is the alignment of the carbon inside the items… So… work on your mindset.. your inner belief of yourself… and then… be the best darn coal or diamond you feel you can and should be!