I Am Not Competing With You
Oh no! I can’t, because we are different.
No two persons have the same fingerprint, so why is it hard to believe that our paths are different?
Let’s dissect it,
What exactly are we competing for?
Survival?
Substance?
Influence?
Impact?
Okay, if competing is the main thing, why do we work with one another?
Most organizations in the world work on the basis of collaboration. Teamwork, sharing ideas, division of labour, fostering relationships, etc.
Why is that?
Why are we not pitching lies against one another? Why are we not fighting tooth, nail, and sinker to ensure our colleagues are underneath us?
I know that these occurrences happen on certain occasions, but the world doesn’t run on such occurrences.
The world runs on collaboration.
For every good thing man created, two heads were better than one.
For every invention and innovation, a team made it happen.
For every successful marriage, a couple did the work.
For every successful organization, brilliant minds made it a reality.
Even the bible says in Ecclesiastes 4 verse 9; Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labour.
I am a writer, and I see a lot of writers sprouting forth daily.
At a point, I began to feel insecure. I started pondering on the wrong things.
Why are there many of us?
What if she becomes better than me?
What if the world loves her work more than mine?
What if I try to make her inefficient?
Yes, that’s is how powerful thoughts can be. You start to think of doing the unimaginable.
But I was able to put my thoughts in check when I noticed something.
No two writer writes the same way.
If given the same story to summarize, every writer ends up telling the story differently.
We were created to be different and if you don’t think that way, you won’t act that way.
I started to value my work more because I realized that no one in the world can write exactly as I would.
So instead of trying to tear a fellow writer down, my energy is channeled on honing my skills, to become better at what I do.
Do I find it hard to promote my fellow writer’s work?
Yes, It was hard at first. I didn’t want anyone to outshine me.
But who am I to stop a human from being who he or she is when I didn’t create any.
If I don’t promote it, someone else will.
As I grew to understand this, I started collaborating and stopped competing.
Competing is only a facade, you think you are leading, you think you are the best, you think you did it all by yourself, but when you get to the top and can’t find anyone by your side, you realize how much competition has stripped from you.
They often say, a successful man isn’t a man that has all the wealth in the world, a successful man is one who has successful people around him.
I urge you to change that mindset of yours, start collaborating and see the difference.
It’s true that the world is a race, but it isn’t a sprint race, it is a relay race.
A race we run together, helping out one another as we pass the baton to each other, cheering up one another, till we get to the finish line.
Though some say competing is healthy, I say collaboration is healthier.
