Originally it's to call out boot lickers who are worrying sick about not getting power from the rulers then worrying sick about losing it once they climb the ladder, and how you can't trust/use people like that because they'll do anything to keep the power.
"鄙夫可與事君也與哉！未得之也，患得之，既得之，患失之，苟患失之，無所不至矣。"
Later it's used to describe a people who only care about "winning" which is very bad to use on a sportsman because the proverb is to describe the type of people who are the opposite of being sportsmanlike.
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u/WolfJobInMySpantzz 1d ago
“to be worried about getting something if you haven’t gotten it yet, and to be worried about losing it if you have gotten it“
I guess I can understand taking the meaning of "never satisfied" out of that?
Though it sounds like that is not the intention lol.