Thank God for Tough Competitors

Recently, I had the privilege of working with the global sales team of a large manufacturing company based in California. They are in a very competitive industry that is dominated by a tough, savvy Goliath, and they have to scrap and scrape every single day for every single fraction of a point of market share. Their CEO kicked off the meeting with a phrase that resonated with me and led to the idea for this post. He said, “Every morning when I wake up I thank God for ____. They force us to become better and better in almost every way.”

Competition has a way of doing that to people. Having a tough competitor reminds you every day that you have to give your best or you will lose. It also makes you realize that when you have done your best and prevailed, that tomorrow your best will not be good enough. Competition is what fuels your motivation to step out of your comfort zone and push your perceived limits. Competitors keep you hungry by constantly striving to take the food off your table, and they supply just the right amount of fear that keeps your edge and drives your growth.

Deliberate practice, which is the only way to achieve mastery of any field, requires an expert coach who can quickly spot what you need to improve, get you out of your comfort zone, and supply immediate meaningful feedback on your performance. In this sense, a tough competitor can be your most effective coach.

Every area of life contains examples of competitive rivalries that made the participants greater: Ali and Frazier, Jobs and Gates, Adams and Jefferson. Who knows if each of those would have achieved the same heights if they did not have the other constantly pushing them harder and harder?

As salespeople—and just plain humans—we prefer for things to go as easily and smoothly as possible. We like it when our competitors aren’t too tough and our customers are not too demanding. When that happens, it’s easy to settle into cruise control and take life easy. Unexpected challenges are viewed as problems to be overcome so that we can get back to our comfortable lives. But that’s a sign of a fixed mindset that mires us in mediocrity.

When we have a growth mindset that views challenges as feedback that clarifies the path to improvement, there are very few limits to what we can achieve. How do you know when you truly have a growth mindset? When you thank God every day for your toughest competitors.