Competitor

The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time. Henry Ford

This is not just true about business but about everyday life. In a way, we are all competitors. We are always competing for the time, attention, energy and resources of the people around us. We see ourselves as competitors because we can see that time, attention, energy, and resources seem to have a limited supply. Sometimes we openly compete; and the competition frequently gets ugly when "the winner takes it all". Then we begin to feel like losers, who are never good enough to get what we want.

We walk around constantly worried about how other people see us. We worry about whether they will think us worthy of their time, attention, energy, and resources. We are focused on ourselves and whether we are good enough. But our attention is on the wrong people. Our most successful competitors don't even notice us. They are not going to give us their time, attention, energy, or resources because they choose to keep it for themselves. We are not considered important enough to even be on their radar screeen.

The competitor to be really feared, in business and in life, is the one who goes on making his business, or life, better all the time. He isn't even trying to compete, because he knows he is, or will be, the best at what he does. He is focused only on his own improvement, so it doesn't matter what any particular other person is doing. There is a lesson to be learned here. The path to success is not one of open competition. We will get much further much more quickly if we stop comparing ourselves to everyone else and just focus on how we can improve our lives and our work.