Instead, I prefer to compete with myself.

When I win business that other digital media groups were also trying for, I never think of it as winning from them. Instead, I just feel like I finally got a proposal to sound even a third as enthusiastic as I sound in person. When someone else gets a great big feature in a magazine, instead of feeling angry or sad or like I lost, I think to myself about how I can achieve more and deliver more results, so that it’s obvious next time that I be called for a story.

Competing with one’s self is far more fulfilling. You control more of the variables. If you want to find more success, throw yourself into your work, into doing big things that matter, into helping your clients succeed. That’s so much easier to conceptualize than thinking about racing against some other person or group.

If you’re trying to catch up to my numbers (and ask yourself why, because the numbers aren’t what matter as much as how you leverage them), you can’t control what I’m doing. So, every little variable I add messes up your effort to catch up or pass. Meanwhile, you’re not paying as much attention to you as you are to me, and are thus not focused on the part you can change the most.

No one ever won a race looking sideways.

Remind yourself of this often. Competition was given to us by our overlords. It was put in place because in situations where someone fabricates a competition, invariably, a third party benefits from BOTH parties’ efforts more than you. Most times, when you’re feeling competitive, you’re being played.

So instead, work within yourself. Work your variables. Work on those things you can change. Work to improve your skills, your thinking, your ability to serve, and your capacity to complete more than you could before. Execute. There are so many talkers that by just doing, you get the chance to win.

It’s much more fun this way. Believe me.

Photo credit peregrine blue

Zappos had to convince thousands and thousands of customers that ordering shoes on the web was easy, and that their customer service policies were top shelf. They made a near-billion dollar correct bet on how they competed.

Craigslist revenues for 2009 were estimated to top $100 million dollars, and Craig Newmark built the company around the premise that excellent customer service and community involvement were the key.

Peter Shankman build HARO (Help A Reporter Out) as a free-to-receive thrice-daily email newsletter to support reporters’ need for information, and has pocketed quite a tidy sum by being helpful to others.

Helpful is always a powerful way to compete.

Other Ways to Compete

Want some more hints? Think about these words:

• Velocity – Can you build a faster experience for people? Can you build a slower one?
• Distance – Can you eliminate distance? (the web does this). Can you make distance a value? (vacation spots)
• Distribution – Can you jump a gate? Jim Koch of Samuel Adams hand-delivered his beer to many bars until someone bought.
• DIY – Can you empower others in the spirit of do-it-yourself? Does your product or service empower others?

Even More Ways to Compete

• Can you solve a problem I didn’t know I have? – VirginUSA solves my “flying is kind of boring” problem.
• Can you remove steps? – BatchBlue formed relationships with Shoeboxed, which allows me to mail my business cards to Shoeboxed, and have them show up in my contact database at BatchBlue, thus powering my contact management.
• Can you create a new marketplace for me? – The iPhone isn’t an amazing phone. It’s a gatejumper for services the other telcos refused to provide, and it’s open for developers to try and make their fortunes. See also Threadless. See also Second Life (virtual goods is still alive and well).
• Can you equip me to succeed? – My Monster Outlets to Go (amazon link) power cord with 3 plugs and a USB port is invaluable to me at airports, where I often have to charge and run. The USB port is the magic (to me)

It’s a dodgy game to compete on price. It’s always a race to the bottom. It’s never fun to compete by name-calling or bragging over your competitors. Instead, really earn it with us by competing in ways that will empower both you and us.

Do you agree? And more importantly, how are you competing right now?

Photo credit, Nebbish1

I learned this by completing a marathon in 2004. I’m not fast. I’m not amazing. I just did it. I ran 26.2 miles and completed it. Did I do that by competing? No. I did it by getting out and running.

I’ll admit it. There are blogs that I track my stats against. I do it to see if I’m improving. I do it to see if they are pulling away from me or if I’m having a better month. We all do it. There’s someone out there that we look at to judge ourselves, even a little bit. But that’s not where I compete.

I compete with myself. Did I or didn’t I land the business partnership? Did I or didn’t I do the boring parts of my job that still have to be done? Did I pay enough attention to my kids? Did I eat my vegetables and skip dessert?

Blog numbers aren’t a competition. Number of twitter followers has nothing to do with competition. Who you have for a customer isn’t how I compete.

And you know what? That’s been how I’ve gotten as far along as I have. I learn from everyone. I learn from people with 10 regular blog readers. I learn from Robert Scoble and all the other names you’d expect. I learn from books with dusty jackets that people have forgotten. I learn from Madonna and Oprah and Jenna Jameson.

You keep on racing.

Photo credit, Larry & Flo