Do you want to remain in the Competition or become a Trailblazer?
Competition arises whenever two or more parties strive for a common goal that cannot be shared; where one’s gain is the other’s loss
There’s usually a profit motive or benefit that goes to the winner of the competition and so there’s always a fierce rivalry to be the winner and stay at the top of the pack
Just as there can be positive effects of competition, there can be negative ones
Negative effects of competition
If it is in an organization, Competition can lead to lower self-esteem, focus on the wrong things and it can affect your work-life balance
It negatively impacts your self-esteem because only 10% of workers can be winners; the other 90% see themselves as losers and that may make them have a lower evaluation of their abilities
When you’re in a competition you focus more on the competition than on the work at hand. You just want to be ahead of your competition and so other tasks are of secondary importance.
There is too much pressure to succeed and so you spend so much time in the office and starve your family at home of the precious family time which makes a family whole. You may even take some work home to get ahead of the competition.
Positive effects of competition
It’s not all negative stuff, however. Competition can be a driver of innovation. In your bid to beat your competitors, you may decide to do things differently and that may give rise to innovation
Steve Jobs and his development team at Apple were on a quest to develop a “ slick phone” when they happened upon the iPhone which has revolutionized the communication space and turned everyone into a budding “ journalist ”. Fascist leaders all over the world hate the fact that suppression of rights get easily reported to the whole world
Affiliate Marketing & Competition
In affiliate marketing, competition is important. It is an indicator that there is a ready market. The more competition you see in a particular niche, the more market there is in that niche. We have different apps like Ahrefs to spy on our competitors and find out what they are doing. Once we know what they are doing right, we can do something different so we can garner a slice of the market.
If a piece of content is already making the buzz online, you can do Keyword research and create something better than the original resource. This has the potential to not only excite the base but attract new audiences. The competition is in providing content that is more exciting than the original resource. If you can create something more detailed and in-depth by adding in more information they missed out, data, statistics, and real-life experiences to back up your points, you would have “skyscrapered” the content and netted a larger audience
As a solopreneur, you do not want to pitch your minuscule strength against industry giants like Johnson and Johnson, Zara, Airbnb, IKEA, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola
It’s ok to draw inspiration from them but you and I certainly lack the resources to compete against such heavyweights. That would be committing economic hara-kiri. They have deep pockets or seemingly inexhaustible resources to spend on advertising and generating traffic
A Competitor or a Trailblazer?
So do you want to remain in the competition or become a trailblazer? That is the question
There is no doubt about it, competition can be stiff-necked. It becomes a battle with you trying to outpace your competitor. The higher the stake, the fiercer the competition. It is a high boiler situation you may want to avoid
Instead of being a competitor, why not be a trailblazer?
Competition will only make you spend all your time pursuing other people's goals and trying to keep up. Instead of competition, why don’t you do something completely new or focus on a well-defined niche? Do you want to spend all your life trying to keep up or can you define success on your own terms based on your own values and detach yourself from all the surrounding noise.
Who knows? Maybe you can come up with a niche!
That way you will become a trailblazer and set the standard for others to follow
Recent Comments
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I prefer to go my own way. Competition can often be unfair, so the winner may not be the best, don't you think?
Nice one Dada. Would you therefore be an advocate for not pursuing the MMO niche given the high bar that has to be jumped?
No. The high bar will not debar me from pursuing the MMO niche. Thank you Hugh for asking that question.
That's the type of spirit that will take you to the top of the mountain. And it's the answer I was hoping to hear. Well said bro.
Hugh
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Hi Dada.
An interesting post, stimulating some thought.
Every business (online or offline) succeeds or fails based on how well it executes its marketing process.
The marketing process starts by recognising a human need, problem or question that is being asked. I.E. it starts by recognising an audience with a common need for a product of some kind and then follows an evaluation to decide how to efficiently and effectively fulfil the need. This is well presented in the WA training.
Whether we take on the competition or innovate, if we miss this first step we will be relying on luck for success.
I would think that Apple didn't just “happen upon the iPhone”... that market was created through people in the 80s wanting phones that had computer capabilities. Then after the first smartphones were delivered in 1994, users wanted miniaturisation. Apple studied many of the early products and customers reactions, as input to their own development. They clearly made great decisions based on their research since the basic design has stood the test of time.
:-)
Richard
Great response Alex with lots of insight and information. Thank you so much for stopping by and elevating the discussion.
I am so sorry! I called you Alex instead of Richard. It was not intentional.
No problem Dada.
Thanks for kind words.
:-)
Richard