Competition Derangement Syndrome In Leadership

I'm an EXTREMELY Competitive Person.

Anything I go for, I want to be the Best at.

Over my Life, I've been pretty Successful at accomplishing this.

If I wasn't "THE" Best, I was in the Best within a Category.

In my Martial Arts, I was the Best in my Age Category at the International Level.

In NCAA D3 Lacrosse, I was the Top Player in Assists and 3rd in Points on my Team.

I have had 45 honors and awards in my Business, 33 of which I received in the past 15 months.

This is in an Industry where most people will never receive a single award.

In my writing, I am the #1 Creator on Typeshare and #2 Creator in the Vocal Journal Community (with my eyes on #1).

I have over 450 Articles that I've written in the past 2 years.

I don't have 1 Certification, I have over 20 Certifications.

You could say I understand a "bit" about what it means to be Competitive.

Now, how is it someone can Win so much?

Well, you have to understand how Competition works.

A Marketing Leader, Christopher Lochhead, recently made a great point about how people misunderstand Competition.

He is a proponent of what is called "Category Design".

Essentially, there is a fundamental difference in how Competition works between Sports and Business, and that is where people tend to go wrong.

In sports, you generally compete against other Teams, and the stakes are similar for the most part.

There's a good chance of both winning and losing in any given game.

However, in Business it doesn't work like this.

Typically, whoever defines the Category the Best Wins.

Based on the Economics, the "Category Designer" wins 76% of the Economics of that Category.

Everyone else "Competes" for the remaining 24%.

However, Lochhead points out that Competing against others for only a small percentage of 24% is a Losing game.

It's Competing for the sake of Competing, but not to Win.

He termed it, "Competition Derangement Syndrome".

You see it all the time in Business.

People that are competing for a tiny slice of nothing.

This is the EXACT reason why I left the Forbes Coaches Council at the age of 27 - It was a group of people with Competition Derangement Syndrome, fighting for scraps of nothing.

It didn't help that I continuously Won that battle as well - I submitted 16 answers in 3 months and was chosen 16 times over thousands of other coaches.

It's great to be Competitive, but not to be Competitive for nothing to gain.

If you're going to be Competitive, you need to do it to Win.

In sports, there's a "fairly" even probability that "any" time you compete you can win.

However, even in Sports, the "best" players understand what "they" are "best at" and Maximize this.

Why do you think I could be a Top Martial Artist in my Age Group, and the #1 in Assists on my Team in NCAA Lacrosse?

Because I Maximized what I was great at.

How do I stand out in a Hyper-Oversaturated marketplace with my Business?

It's because I'm not playing the same game as others.

I Purposefully don't play the "Leadership Development" game.

First, it doesn't work and completely Fails 80% of the time, with "limited" success the remaining time.

However, I also don't play it because it's a losing proposition to compete over the Ludicrously Small Percentage of what is left of the Industry.

When it comes to Leadership Development, there is only 1 name that wins - John C. Maxwell.

I admire John tremendously, and I started my career as a Coach "because" of his Organization.

I also recognize that he's completely and utterly Won "Leadership Development".

I Honor everything that John has contributed to Leadership over the years...

And I still want to Win.

I am not going to succumb to Competition Derangement Syndrome and Compete for the sake of Losing.

I'm going to Win.

That's why I started working on Legendary Leadership, Leadership Cultivation, and Regenerative Legacy Design.

This is why I continue to stand out - I created New Categories and have pushed significantly further than others have gone.

If you are going to Win in Business, you have to Compete against 1 Person...

Yourself.

When you start Competing against others in Business, you've already Lost.

You're fighting over the scraps of 24% that is left.

When you Design the Category, you Win.

To continue to Win, you must continuously Win against Yourself because that is the only "Real" Competition.

If you stop Competing, someone may "eventually" take the Category.

An example of this is Ryan Holiday who currently owns the Category of Stoicism.

But how many years did it take for someone to take the Crown from the Category Kings of Stoicism?

Over 1500 years.

If you Create the Category, and then you continuously Compete against yourself, you will continue to Win.

How do I continue to Win?

I keep Competing against myself.

When you are Different, truly Unique, and you continuously Compete against your prior day, you can't help but Win.