You’re Racing- I’m Improving

December 11, 2008 · Comments

pigs racing Here’s the thing: sometimes people ask me about competition. They ask me who I’m watching out for, or who I’m worried about, or who I’m competing with. There are a few answers to this question, to be honest, but it might not make sense to you, if you think like most people. You see, I’m not competing with any of you. I’m working on improving.

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

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Tagged as: ,

ChrisBrogan.com runs on the Thesis Theme for WordPress

Thesis WordPress theme

Thesis is the search engine optimized WordPress theme of choice for serious online publishers. If you’re a blogger who doesn’t understand a lot of PHP, Thesis will give a ton of functionality without having to alter any code. For the advanced, Thesis has incredible customization possibilities via Thesis hooks.

With so many design options, you can use the template over and over and never have it look like the same site. The theme is robust and flexible enough not only to accommodate a site like ChrisBrogan.com, but also to enable the site to run far more efficiently than it ever has before.

  • Such an interesting thing ... almost a catch 22 of sorts.

    Life is all about learning, growing, being challenged ... we should be learning every day in one way or another.

    A lot of times it seems like we are learning due to something that has caught our attention. As we get older we get more career oriented so our learning happens with respect to our careers. Sometimes out learning is directly tied to our career. (not that this always happens, but i see it as something fairly common).

    You tie your learning to your career ... and competition starts coming into play. As you said Chris ... it's like part of our DNA to compete and compare our selves to others - we can't help it :)

    I guess the point to remember is "never stop learning"

    --
    http://twitter.com/franswaa
  • gerardmclean
    When people ask me who my competitors are I say "Ignorance" and "Apathy." In the end, they are my only competitors.
  • really loved this post and couldn't agree more. Although I tend to be slightly competitive by nature (I swear it is in my gene pool), I find that in this business working together is far stronger than working against each other.
  • James Jones
    I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.
    - William Blake
  • I work with silver to make jewellery and I teach as well. The teaching allows me to make a living. Additionally it gives me the freedom to experiment and learn because I am not worried about selling my jewellery to make a living. I think that a competitive approach would seriously hamper my creativity. I would no longer just learning and growing my skills.

    Thank you for your pearls of wisdom Chris. Your blog has been a wonderful resource and an inspiration.
  • Dare I ask exactly *what* you learned from Jenna Jameson? ;-)

    I'm with you on this one for sure - competition against others became an outdated model before the competitors even realized it. If you really want to compete, test yourself against what you did today and improve on that by 1% tomorrow.

    If we improve ourselves by competing against ourselves, guess what - that has a natural effect on those around us who want to improve as well. Pretty soon, just like the best common cold, that improvement has spread to everyone you know and everyone they know - doesn't take long to infect a world with greatness at that rate...
  • Awesome post Chris. Like you, I don't compete with anyone. I work the hardest to improve my own statistics, incomes and profits of what I do in my life...
  • Nice post. Similar to the saying, "I am my own worse enemy" I think that we can be our own worse competition, and that competition (with ourselves) can bring out the most improvement.
  • Chris,

    focusing on self-improvement with an occasional glance as to what the competition is doing makes perfect sense. If you focus on the competitors too much all you end up doing is following in their footsteps. Keep doing what you have been doing for a while now, be Chris Brogan. Keep on saying it like it is and needs to be in order to move forward and accomplish your goals.
  • I totally hear you on this one Chris!

    Sometimes I wonder if some people got a "competition" gene that I just didn't get, because I think very much like you, and it can be hard to communicate how I see it soemetime to people who are the competitive type. So well said! And because you've pushed a button in me on this one, and my answer was getting so long, I've moved it to my blog post From Competition to Improvement to a Day at the Beach.
  • Your words could not be more true.

    I am very competitive - with myself. Yes... I love to compare and keep track of those folks who's goal it is to keep me on my toes. But... in the end... it's all about being the best I can be. Thanks for your insight Chris.
  • I just want to thank you for your insightful words. It is so easy to lose sight of the big picture and reading your blog often helps me to focus on the things that matter. Yes, we all compare ourselves to others, but self improvement will make for a more lasting happiness. I am inspired by your words...
    Thank you.
  • Actually, I lie. I done the marathon in 2006. I wonder if running has a detrimental effect on memory?!? It blocks out the pain and the date!!

    - Martin
  • I agree. I recently wrote a blog post about why you shouldn't be jealous of the competition, but also explain why online communities are inherently difficult to compare against one another anyway: http://tinyurl.com/6mb93s

    Oh, and I too threw myself around a marathon course: London, 2007. I feel your pain (but also the sense of achievement).

    - Martin
  • Do racing and improving have to be mutually exclusive?
  • @Joshua Aye, I would leave it entirely up to you to hit that Jenna Jameson lob :D
  • I have also learned quite a bit from Jenna Jameson. Great business mentor, really gets into her work!
  • I spent 14 years at IBM/Lotus "battling against" Microsoft. I left this summer to join the "2.0" world, with the hope that there would be less bickering, and more getting along with each other in order to compete against "the big guys". Instead I find the "2.0" world even more catty at times. I guess everyone in this spaces needs to struggle more to survive. I find that Twitter is often a source of cheap shots at each other. I wish more people took the high road. The other day I was so annoyed at some of the other vendors in our space that I tweeted "Imagine if a vendor actually retweeted something positive about another vendor, instead of jumping on any negative thing they can." The responses were quite interesting.
  • @emilwisch
  • Nicely put. I've opened myself up to more "competitors" as of late who I consider mentors. This post lines up well with a thought of mine (I won't call it a quote; it's probably been uttered many times before): I learn from and am motivated by people I listen to every day who broaden my perspective on so many different topics.
  • Chris,

    Excellent post. At the end of the day, people genuinely respect genuine people. And while it's sometimes easy to fool someone once or twice, it's difficult to do fool another person over an extended period of time when your conversations are public and easily accessible. You talk with people, not to them, and that's pretty rare - even among so many conversations happening on the Internet.

    Best,

    Ross Kimbarovsky
    co-Founder
    crowdSPRING
  • Just today I was wondering if I am in the minority of folks who follow direct competitors on our agency Twitter account. I fully hope they follow back. If they steal our clients, it's our own fault.
  • I've learned what is possible from all of you. Your success in establishing presence helps me define a sense of the possible. Train and practice as I may, this body will never run a four minute mile. Never the less, as my capability improves I will recognize how my effort is meeting up with my potential. I've always found a great sense of freedom from functioning at full potential.
  • LOVE the way you think! Keep on keeping on with your message please. We have learned in our Real Estate practice in Columbus, OH that the more we share our knowledge and experience w/colleagues & clients, the more eager everyone else is to offer up thier new tid bits also. It's kind of warm and fuzzy, but it works. The reciprocity is amazing. We have goals to reach, but it's just that, our goals only. Strive for a personal best, it's not about the 'other guy' -> what more could one hope to acheive. Cheers from the bloggosphere~
    Jeanne O'Keefe
    http://www.thecolumbusteam.com
  • I just recently found your blog, Chris. Quality! This post reminds me of the best conference I ever attended, Workplace 1017 in October 2007 at the University of Waterloo near Toronto.

    http://www.2017.uwaterloo.ca/balsillievid1.htm

    This interview with Jim Balsillie, joint CEO of RIM, by Malcolm Gladwell was riveting - to me, anyway. Balsillie says that business is about navigating cascading circumstances, a series of optimisations and like white water rafting. It's about keeping the boat upright, heading in the right direction and trying to avoid the rock that's just come into view. At one point he says you just run, and you run fast.
  • I agree with this post fully. Back when I was studying interactive design one guy at my class stated "This makes us competitors, right?" Errr, what? I didn't understand that statement. I was more like "We are in same business, let's play together!"

    One should follow his or her own passions without always thinking the goal. When you forget the goal and just keep on doing, you'll finally see that you have excelled the goal and maybe even more.

    And the thing about learning from everyone; if people would do that more often without stupid prejudice, this place would be a lot more decent place to live.

    Thanks again Chris!
  • I agree wholeheartedly with the general sentiments here and Laura Roeder in particular. It's also likely that if you pay too much attention to what is popular for your competitors, you'll lose confidence in your own judgment and that that's the beginning of the end.
  • Great post. Trying to "top" someone else will never yield the same level of satisfaction as looking back and saying "Wow. Look how far I've come." When you compete with someone else you're only focusing on half the equation - the results. Listening, learning, and processing will strengthen your work AND produce results.

    On a side note, I haven't been able to fully utilize the things I've learned from Jenna Jameson in the workplace. Yet.
  • Bev
    Beautifully put. I wish more people understood this.

    I do race competitively, there is no denying that, and that is probably why what you wrote resonates so well with me. Those who mistake me as incredibly competitive miss the mark, its not so much as me against them as me against me, and its always been so. In sailing I race in high caliber fleets to better hone my craft, [spin and jib trim] which to do right requires constant attention and fiddling, and because its a sport so greatly context dependent its really nice to have others in the same type of boat nearby to help gauge efforts. In swimming its all about moving through the water more efficiently one stroke at a time by thinking about each and every stroke.

    In one sport I race, in the other I do not, but they are equally rewarding because I find them enjoyable and I'm focused on perfecting what I'm doing bit by bit.

    Congrats on the marathon!

    Off for my lunchtime swim to work on my butterfly.

    Bev
    @fivekoi
  • Chris and commenters: Thank you for this fabulous entry! I cannot help my strong suspicion/belief that we are headed towards a cooperative capitalism, rather than sustaining a competitive one. Wrote an early post about this, and another in the heat of October's economic slide.
    Most people can't comprehend leaving competition behind ...
  • Congrats on the marathon Chris. You make a great point and it comes down to "why are you doing what you do". Is it because you want to be better than the person next to you or because you want to be the best you can be. I try to follow the latter, personally.
  • Yes, defeting yourself is the hardest part. And the most satisfying as well. "Did I or didn’t I do the boring parts of my job that still have to be done?" - I like that most. Guess we all end here. Thanks for inspiration. Cheerz.
  • I'm with you. I sometimes need to read things like this to refocus my efforts. Stop getting caught up in it all and just do it.
  • While it is true you should certainly work on improving yourself, not necessarily racing your competitors I find that when I'm actually racing (see: running) I drop as much as 2 minutes on my 5K times. Competing against other people pushes me and challenges me further than I seem to be capable of pushing myself.

    I think this can apply to blogging as well, and you've hit on that too. I can train and work harder than anyone else in the world and I'm never going to run a 5K as fast as Bernard Lagat, but I can pick someone that is of a similar skill level and measure myself against, and push myself to attain their status.

    The best part about blogging is that an ordinary person CAN achieve remarkable status with enough hard work, learning, and perseverance. This isn't necessarily true of running 5Ks. Thanks for the insight Chris!
  • Some people think it sounds strange, but I truly don't believe in business competition. The concept of competition stems from the belief that there is a finite number of customers to be had, or money to be made, which isn't true. First of all no two products or services are exactly the same. And secondly customers can and do buy the "exact same" product or service from two different providers all the time. I think worrying about competition is a total waste of time and energy, and will lead you astray because you get stuck copying others instead of being true to your own style.
  • Great post. I always believed that I could provide my competitors with my detailed marketing plan and they still could not outperform me because they had no capacity to replicate my authenticity, integrity and knowledge. And although many competitors tried to copy some elements of what I did, none could match the whole effort. Sure, some will be successful following their own strategy, but likely not one that would satisfy me.
  • Nice post Chris. I've always viewed competition as healthy, it keeps you honest. Some of the most wonderful and talented people I have met to date are on Twitter and they are also my competitors. Do I view them that way? No. I view them as fabulous people I am grateful for meeting, who just happen to make a variety of awesome products within the beauty industry. I know that I have learned something from each and every one of them.
  • I was never very good at competing because I always felt bad when someone else lost. It's nice to know that I'm not the only person who does not feel the need to compete. I find it much more productive to keep my eye on my own progress. You're a good man. Thanks for setting a standard that others are looking at as a model for success.
  • Chris, absolutely dead on. I have seen a lot of businesses and individuals fail because they were focused on their competitors. It drains energy and leads to a lack of focus.

    By taking care of our own business, and not focusing on what others are doing makes the goal of improving easier to see and achieve bit by bit.

    I am always astonished to see how many people are more concerned about everyone else's business but their own; then they blame their competitors and anyone or everyone else when they fail.
  • Great post. This reminds me of a quote I read today in one of O'Reilly's Flash books: "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Gandhi said it, not me, but I think it applies to what you're saying just the same. We all need to keep learning, no matter how well you think you know something.
  • I like this subject! I'm in a tiny niche, so I really embrace competition, because my thought is the more of us there are the greater population of customers we can all attract together ... but what I wonder is if I'd have this same attitude if I were in a highly competitive area? I really couldn't say.

    I'd like to think I'd agree with you though, but as of right now my goals are two-fold, 1) yes, always improving myself; and 2) spreading the general word to expand my (and even my competitors) customer base.

    That said, I take no greater pleasure than when I've noticed that I've leapfrogged a direct competitor on a nice search term in Google!

    Thanks,Cliff
  • Today's competitors are tommorow's best employees.

    So never speak ill of them or try to hurt them.

    Of course this only applies if you do what Chris suggests and hone your skills to a laser like focus.

    The customer always knows and especially in down times will have a sense like you have never seen before for excellence.
  • Good take, Chris. It's easy in this world to worry about the competition and then trip because you took your eye off the road.
  • I have to agree with the "I compete with myself." Competition can be a good motivator but in reality there is only the competition we create. There is enough room for everyone and really I feel no need to feel I am personally comepeting with anyone.

    The way I look at it we are all in this together and the better one person does the better off we all are.

    Good topic Chris.
  • Chris,

    It's so easy to lose sight of what we're really trying to accomplish. Some folks view everything as a race with competitors, winners and losers.

    Everything is not a numbers game. If you do what you know is right, treat your business and the people involved as valued assets, you will improve. Let the racers have their oval tracks and vie for pole position. I'll be out on the road, taking in the scenery.

    Cheers!

    George
  • You ran a marathon? Wow, impressive. Congrats. You're right about this. I learned this important fact back in 99. Block and tackle. Quit worrying about what others are doing, it's a waste of time. RUN! Fast, win, be better, do it better. Good stuff.
blog comments powered by Disqus

Previous post:

Next post: