Stop Bashing Your Competitors || Eps 34 #InTheLab

I have a beef to make. Why do we insist on bashing our competitors? I mean, you have an obvious bias against them, they run a business that’s very similar to yours in YOUR industry. They probably even copied some of the stuff you do! Still not a reason to insult your competition.

Why shouldn’t you bash your competitors you ask? Well, several reasons.

1. Bashing your competition makes you look childish, silly, dumb, not confident in what you do

People already assume you hate your competitors, like a competitive rivalry in sports, you NEVER like your opponents. But unlike in sports (where smack talk is usually pretty entertaining) bashing your competitors does nothing for you or your business. It’s a sign of weakness.

We only put down/insult/demean those who threaten us.

Talking bad about your competition may even hurt your business, no one likes talking to negative Nancy, and if you continue to bad mouth your competitors someone will eventually tell them. Our world is far too small.

Don’t gossip, don’t spread negative news, don’t say a thing negative about and competition. If anything find out what they do really well. Want to show confidence in what you do? Talk great about your competitors. Build them up, find the best in what they do, you never know when you’re going to need something from a competitor.

There’s a reason why you should want to get along with your competition…

2. The Nash Equilibrium

In the critically acclaimed A Beautiful Mind, the story John Nash, the famous Nobel winning brilliant mathematician who developed paranoid schizophrenia. I haven’t read the book (it won a Pulitzer prize) but you should either read it or watch the movie (won 4 Academy awards).

There is a famous scene when Nash and his fellow economists are in a bar and his friend (referencing the cute girl across the bar) quotes Adam Smith, “every man for himself!” in his quest for the girl. Nash then has this brilliant realization that if they all truly believe every man for himself they will be worse off than if they worked together to help everyone achieve his goal (or everyone get a girl).

This ends up becoming the inspiration for the paper that puts John Nash on the map. A “new concept in governing dynamics” now known as the Nash Equilibrium, a part of Game Theory that speaks to competition in a very open and transparent marketplace where either party has no benefit in maximizing ones’ own benefit at the cost of others.

So in John Nash’s eyes, how would he look at your industry? How can you work with your competitors instead of against, to help everyone in your market?

3. Good things happen to good people

Al Derges said this. He believed that given any situation, if you could do something to help someone, it was your duty to do so. Similar to Karma or the Golden Rule. As a famous person once said, even if you don’t believe in Karma, act like you do. Don’t find yourself on the gossip train with people. Some folks just love to talk negatively gossip about others, stay far, far away from these people, they are toxic.

People who criticize others are afraid of their own short-comings. Picking a part others makes them feel powerful in the moment, but it is not real power, it’s contrived power.

Don’t entertain people gossiping behind other people’s backs, it doesn’t make you a better person at all. Contrary to popular belief, most of us don’t need to know what’s going on it everyone else’s life we’re perfectly fine minding our own business. If you do have to talk about people behind their back, you had better spread positive rumours.

Being a good person is very lost in our busy digital culture, that just means you stand out when you do, on and off line. We can tell what type of person you are from your online foot print. No it’s not entirely accurate but it does show us a lot about what you are interested in. If you’re a good person, the world is going to find you and help you, heck, I want to help you! But if you’re negative, the world will also find you, and you don’t want to see the world ANGRY!

Speaking of “good” people. Check out Daziran, she’s a very kind Naturopathic Doctor in Regina.