Is It Reasonable To Seek A Personal Competitive Advantage?

I’m referring to a personal competitive advantage, not a  corporate advantage.

Certainly we are all familiar with competition in business. Coke vs. Pepsi. Ford vs. GM. UPS vs. FedEx. And so on.

In fact, competition is, in most cases, as close to the definition of business as you can get.

But when it comes to individuals, is a competitive advantage possible or even appropriate?

I suppose in numerous cases it is expected. Like in politics, where winning means others lose.

But in normal daily interpersonal interactions?
Yes, sad as it to say, some people behave as if life was a competition. Road rage, line jumpers, shoplifters, political backstabbers in the office. Nasty all around.

And then there is sports. Competition is the name of the game in sports. There would be little or no sports if it weren’t for competition.

But personally?
I would be a wretched husband if I made my interactions with my spouse a competition. I would be a horrid member of the community if normal interactions with my neighbor was based on competition.

And The Downside
We are all so unfortunately familiar with destructive competition. Wars. Groups and individuals with all sorts of self-destructive behaviors. Competitive behaviors masking survival instinct motivations.

So When Is Competition Appropriate?
If I measure some part of me against the measure of others, is that nothing more than being competitive? For example, I am told that my home uses less electricity and gas than average homes in my area (according to the data the local utility sends us, unsolicited).

Supposedly, measuring against others is said to have a motivational affect. “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it,” as ascribed to Peter Drucker.

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On the The Other Hand
So I suppose it is the way of the world. Do I love my spouse more than another man loves his spouse? Do I care more about the state of the world than you? Are my thoughts of a better quality than that other person over there? Absurdity is attempting to measure what cannot, or at least should not, be measured.

When Is Competition Useful?
There are times when we can use the concept of competition to our benefit without engaging in competitive behavior.

If we can identify something that others do that is not to their advantage, and we refrain from do it, we can use this knowledge to our advantage

Is Competition Hard-Wired Into Human Brains?
Since the human condition is to follow the lead of others, thinking for oneself is often in short supply. We buy things because others buy them, we choose things because others choose them.

Are there things we can do that would separate us from group-think that would be positive for us, that would give us some advantage in the long run?

There are, and it is all along the lines of Less Now, More Later.

But how to do this? How to start on, or continue on, a path that allows us to grow and progress but at the same time provides the groundwork for reaping the “more later” part?

Once in a while I run across a supremely efficient way of describing a positive behavior. And for this topic of behavior I found the following quote, courtesy of Tim McAleenan, Jr., of The Conservative Income Investor (sadly, his site is no longer available.). (The original link compared investing in Starbucks vs. buying Starbucks coffee.)

“You know what can be an incredible competitive advantage? Not engaging in a particular expenditure that your peers do.”

 

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Now, in my opinion it seems that if we cast some things in a competitive light, it might garner more attention and energy than if we speak the facts as they simply are. This is common in many endeavors, such as in sports. Many a headline has screamed “This Is War!” in sports rivalries. But of course it is not war.

And we see this in politics all the time. Fear motivates people more than positive themes.

So instead of expressing the positive nature of saving and investing (as in Less Now, More Later), it seems that portraying a behavior in competitive terms amasses more energy, motivates more. I suppose this is human nature.

When I decide, referencing the quote above, to not engage in a particular expenditure that my peers do, I am doing what I do for myself and my own benefit. I contend that if my motivation is to gain a competitive advantage, I am not as likely to attain the personal growth that might accrue than if I focus on what is right for me in my circumstances.

But since the concept of competition is the initial motivation of many people, I accept that it can be a more powerful catalyst at a beginning. In the longer run, however, the motivation of competition can end up to be self-destructive.

After the initial competitive impetus, I must recognize that personal inner peace does not come from competition.

What is your take on the possibilities of a “personal competitive advantage”? Send your comments: Contact.

 

The fragment of the World Map was by Piri Reis. Piri Reis was a sixteenth-century Ottoman Admiral famous for his maps and charts collected in his “Kitab-ı Bahriye” (Book of Navigation), 1513, a book which contains detailed information on navigation as well as extremely accurate charts describing the important ports and cities of the Mediterranean Sea. The World Map shows the western edges of Europe and Africa, the eastern edges of Central America and South America. It is based on some twenty older maps and charts which he had collected, including charts personally designed by Christopher Columbus which his uncle Kemal Reis obtained in 1501 after capturing seven Spanish ships off the coast of Valencia in Spain with several of Columbus’ crewmen on board. Image in the public domain, courtesy Wikimedia Commons. The map of Alexandria, Egypt, is from the same volume.

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