Why Competitors Aren’t the Enemy

I used to believe in winning. The marketplace was a battlefield, competitors were the enemy, and the objective was simple: beat them. But over time, I began to see things differently.

What if the game we’re playing isn’t finite? What if the real objective isn’t to beat others but to outdo ourselves? What if the goal isn’t to win but to stay in the game longer, to keep playing, to keep growing?

I remember a time when a smaller brand entered a market we had been fighting to dominate. They didn’t have our budget or our connections, but they were thriving. At first, my instinct was to counter every move they made, to outmaneuver them, to prove we were the stronger player.

But then it hit me. They weren’t playing the same game we were. They weren’t fixated on beating us. They were fixated on playing their game, in their way, for as long as they could. And in that clarity, they found momentum.

The finite mindset tells us to chase victory, to crush the competition, to tally the wins. But the infinite mindset? It tells us to focus on something far more lasting: our vision, our mission, our reason for being in the game in the first place.

When we obsess over what our competitors are doing, we lose sight of what we’re doing. We become reactive instead of intentional. We let them dictate our next move instead of writing our own playbook.

The lesson I learned? Your real competition isn’t the company across the street or the brand that just entered your market. Your real competition is the version of you that you were yesterday. Your real competition is your ability to stay true to your mission when everyone else is chasing trends.

Winning is temporary. But staying in the game, that’s where the real impact happens. Play your game, your way, and play it for the long run.

Because the infinite game isn’t about beating others. It’s about becoming who you were meant to be.