Don’t Compete With Others. Compete With Yourself.

The theme of the week for me seems to be competition. Twice while vending, I was greeted by other vendors with hostility, rolled eyes, and competitive remarks. It seems that those people haven’t learned that other people are not their competition. Their business doesn’t succeed or fail based on what someone else does or knows. It succeeds or fails based on what THEY do or know.

When you feel that twinge and tightening in your stomach when you see someone else who does what you do, don’t get mad and reject them. Watch them. Talk to them. Learn from them. Perhaps they have techniques for getting their message out that work better than what you are doing. Maybe they have opportunities that require a team, but you can’t take advantage of them for lack of a qualified partner. Maybe they know of teachers or products that you could benefit from.

In other words, don’t compete with them. They aren’t the problem. Compete with yourself. Challenge yourself to be better than you currently are. That twinge you feel doesn’t have to be ugly and directed outward. It could be the something that let’s you know something is wrong. It could be the something that lights a fire under you to get you moving in a positive direction. Use it for that. If you sit there with the knowledge that something is wrong and blame others, you don’t get any better. If you use it to shine a light on your work then use that knowledge to improve, you WILL get better.