How To Create No Competition

People look for the best. People don’t have a lot of time and don’t want to take a lot of risks. 

If your mother got diagnosed with cancer, you’re probably not going to want to mess around by going to a lot of doctors. You’re going to try to seek the best in the world. 

If you only get one chance, why waste it? 

Same with visiting a new country. I don’t know about you, but if I visit a new place, I don’t want to go to a typical restaurant, I want to go to the best. 

Or how about hiring someone to be in your company? Do you want average? Or do you want the “best”? 

The rewards are heavily skewed for being number one. This is called Zipf’s law, and it basically states that the contrast between being number 1 and number 2 is large. 

So as you can see, being number one matters. But the cool thing is, there’s plenty of room to be the best. You don’t need to worry about competition. You can create your own lane, because “best” is subjective. Best depends on what a person can get, right now, based on what they believe and what they know. 

We all live in our own little worlds. 

If I’m looking for a video editor, the best video editor for me is someone who speaks English, who fits my schedule with a price I can afford. It would be different depending on the person and the specifics of what the person wants. Since the world is becoming more specialized, there are more “best” being formed. 

There’s no longer a mass market, but micro markets, with each micro market having its own “best”. Another term that’s being thrown around is “niche” market. 

If I want the best organic curated fruits based only in Lima, Peru, shipped weekly, there’s now a market and a “best” for that. So while it’s more important than ever to be the best in the world, I think it’s also getting easier, as long as we pick the right lane or create our own. 

So how I like to reflect on this, is what are my strengths and what am I curious about? How can I merge these elements together and create something fresh? 

Since we’re all unique human beings, there’s a lot of room to be the “best”. We can all win. No need to compete with each other. Let’s compete against ourselves.