Competitiveness

Competitiveness is sometimes mistaken for jealousy or envy. Jealously is a disruptive force. It will only give you ways to pull the other person down rather than pushing yourself up. You can only pull down so many people, that too on the cost of not improving yourself. For example, if someone scores more than you, in terms of marks, money or even girls (not being sexist, girls are not scored, just a way of saying), you can either try to cut their chances or be competitive and build one for your own.

Competitiveness, as I define it, is the ability to track what quality in others is better than yourself backed with a desire to improve and excel. Nothing is possible without Desire, desire provides the will to do something and the drive to get it done. Healthy competition cannot exist without desire but, desire should be to reach up, not pull down.

Think about this:

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan". All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little..

The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. It could not be any simpler than that.

Without the existence of competition, we will never improve, competition provides us with fear, the fear of losing. A quote in The Dark Knight Rises says, "You do not fear death. You think this makes you strong. It makes you weak. How can you move faster than possible, fight longer than possible without the most powerful impulse of the spirit: the fear of death." In essence it means fear calls upon your desperation. Until you are willing to do anything possible to achieve, you will not.

It will sound awfully philosophical, but it's true, we should negate the Crab Do. Crabs when caught in a bowl have the tendency to pull down any other crab that tries to escape. As a result, no crab will escape and the captor will not need to put a lid on the bowl to prevent escaping. The crabs remain captured, slowly waiting their demise.

Steps for healthy competition:

1. Identify your competition.

2. Identify characteristics required for success (in the market, exam, interview, etc.)

3. Analyse where they are better and where you are better.

4. Focus on those which require immediate attention.

5. Evaluate the distance traveled.

Building healthy competition:

1. Confidence: When you are confident on yourself, you will never be jealous. You'll believe in yourself, it will create the attitude of I want to become better than others because I CAN, rather than thinking and conspiring against others. A confident person will be ready to face challenges and will not fall all square in face of tough competition.
2. Positive Attitude: Since our birth, we are taught to keep a Positive Attitude towards things. In some situations, it's not easy but always necessary. I myself realised in the past that I'm a sour loser, I tried to work upon it, I don't know how much I improved but today I can smile and congratulate a person. Positive Attitude in face of misery/defeat is necessary. It is easy to undermine or condescend someone else's achievements, or call it a fluke, but you never know how much devotion is required to achieve it by "fluke". It is necessary to let go of the past and concentrate on the future.
3. Respecting Competition: It is an age old saying that One should never underestimate his adversary. The underdogs are the ones that can disrupt everything. Respect them for the fact that they are able to compete with you. Think about their likely moves and be proactive to respond to them.
4. Desire: As I mentioned earlier, desire is pivotal to action. The desire should not be to better a person but to better everyone else. A positive desire causes a positive action and attitude. Aspire to reach your potential, and beyond. If desire is confined to a person, you'll lose purpose as soon as you pull them down or get beyond them. One should adopt the Japanese principle of Kaizen, i.e. the desire to improve forever.

Remember, without a winner or a loser, there is no end. Compete with others to end up on top