Competition Is Not A Threat. It Is An Inspiration.

Something to chew on. A lot of us have, at one time or another, wanted to stand at the summit while everyone else stays down at the base. Where does that come from? Maybe a wish to be God-like, perched so far above the crowd that no one can reach us. We imagine we think the way God thinks. Always a step ahead, always holding every answer. (Is that actually achievable? It isn't.) The urge is really a kind of armor. We don't want anyone slipping past us, because staying in front lets us steer our own fate, and frequently other people's too, which happens to suit us.

Could you really carry the weight of being God? I once knew a four-year-old who couldn't, and somewhere down inside he understood that, though he worked hard to keep his parents from seeing what he actually believed. He had climbed to a spot where he and his family dictated everything in the household: bedtimes, what everyone ate, even how people were allowed to feel. Was any of that wise? Don't take on more than you can swallow. Things go easier when you lean on your friends now and then, the way the Beatles put it in their song.

Nobody can hold all the information in an age of computers, and even when the facts land in your lap, you still have to turn them into something that makes sense. A tower is a solitary place to live, however high the view. Think of Rapunzel, trapped up there in the story, who had to let down her long hair so the prince could climb up and get her out.

So we can't always untangle our own knots, and sometimes the competition can. When you hit a wall, do you throw up your hands and treat the stuck problem as a menace, rather than a chance to do your particular thing even better than before? A rival is inspiration, not a danger. The competition wouldn't exist if the underlying idea hadn't been worth something in the first place. And problems themselves are openings, a reason to repair now what could have blown up badly somewhere down the line.

Ask yourself plainly: can you pull it off alone? A sharp CEO recognizes the moment he's out of his depth and goes to find the person who isn't, and he also lets a competitor's better pitch push him toward changes his own company needed anyway. Expect competition; it's coming no matter what. And consider what moved you to begin with. It was watching somebody else succeed, and wanting to take what they did and do it one notch better.

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