The Zen Habits blog has an entry called Success is not a competition.



In the process of running your business, do you worry about beating the next guy? Of course as a small business owner you have to worry about the big boys but do you think you have to beat the guy next door?

Saying that I am a competitive person is an understatement after all second place is the first looser!! In fact at one time I drove race cars so beating the competition was a way of life.

I remained very competitive even after I stopped getting behind the wheel of a race car. I always fought to be the number one is sales whether it was me as an individual against everyone else or my store against the rest of the company, I did not want to finish in second place.

While the competitive spirit can be good, it can also blind you to things that are just if not more important.

One of those things is helping others including your fellow business owners. As Zig Ziglar says "you can have everything in life you want if you help enough other people get what they want".

By boosting others you are actually boosting yourself although you need to do it for the right reasons. You need to genuinely want to help the other person to benefit them and not just be helping yourself in the long run. What is in your heart is most important.

While competition is good, success takes something else.