R Kotler says somewhere that he had to spend so much time away from home, travelling to fundraise. So, he asked himself – why did he deserve that (even as he was able to fulfil his approach of having many students by this). And his answer is that – maybe he was inconsiderate and answered in a rude way to a student at some point and that was the punishment. I first read this as a siman of humbleness, but maybe it was an example of honest self-assessment that we should all emulate. There are apparently stories of Rav’s temper and effect of it. One story is that when there was a confrontation between Kletzk yeshiva students and non-R Zionists on shabbos – where yeshiva students “learnt” loudly to prevent the speaker (in the shul that let the yeshiva be there) and some local gvir started tearing seforim and Rav (who was there too!) told him that he’ll be torn apart himself – and the gvir fell into a machine and lost his legs same afternoon. Then, a story of him cursing a Lakewood yeshiva’s neighbor for complaining about noise and then finding out that it was student’s fault and then asking Hashem to take his curses back … With this background, we can see how R Kotler was passionate about his position, and how R Soloveitchik decided that it is better to stop it as he would not change his mind in such a discussion.
