The Misconception Of Competition VS. Community

Don’t sabotage your success with a false sense of competition

If you’ve grown up in a household with other siblings, you’ve likely developed a strong sense of competition. You had to fight in order to defend what’s yours and maybe to win the upper hand over your brothers and sisters. But singletons too can have a strong sense of competition, if they were put under a lot of pressure from their parents from a young age.

In certain environments, this sense of competition can bring you great success. But there are plenty of environments where an overly developed sense of competition can be a disadvantage, causing more harm than doing good.

We will point out the negative side effects of being too competitive and why your professional growth can take off rapidly by putting others before yourself.

Competitive mindsets can be toxic

By constantly seeing your peers as direct competitors to your own success, you are putting yourself under a lot of unnecessary stress. Where you could find new and long-lasting friendships, you start seeing new enemies and obstacles instead. You will treat them in a negative way, both consciously and subconsciously. As a result, you will be perceived in a similarly negative way.

In the short run, taking the high road may appear worthwhile. But such behavior almost always comes back around to bite you.

We’ll take a look at how a less competition-oriented mindset can benefit you in the long run, and how a lot of successful individuals can pinpoint their success to an openminded and community-oriented behavior.

Military discipline and unity

The degree to which military members commit to teamwork and cooperation is unprecedented and a remarkable example of success through team-effort.

From the first day at Bootcamp, new recruits are being taught that “Me“,” Myself”, and “I” are from now on no longer part of their vocabulary. These words simply don’t exist. If a recruit needs to talk about him- or herself, they will do so by using their surname, “recruit XXX reports…”.

This is to ensure that these recruits learn their place in a team of like-minded people. There is no place nor time for loners and egocentrists. If you fail, the whole platoon fails. And if you succeed, then it’s not thanks to you, but thanks to the whole platoon.

No one in the military succumbs to envy when a peer receives a promotion. Because this success is the success of all members involved. And if your comrade gets promoted, then this will benefit you too, for you are still his comrade and he thinks highly of you. When the time comes, he’ll recommend you for promotion as well.

This is incredibly effective, team-oriented thinking and leads to the success of all members within a platoon. It is also the reason why military members and veterans unambiguously agree that this “band of brothers” they form during their career is stronger than any friendship and closely resembles that of the relationship one has with blood relatives. They put their peers before themselves.

Youtubers and influencers

Entirely different from the military, but equal in disregarding competitive thinking in favor of community growth, are Youtubers and influencers on the internet.

Though they all share the same goals (gaining followers) and often compete within the same industries by providing identical content, they do not feel threatened by other personalities in their range of influence.

Instead, they reach out to each other and collaborate even, sharing their followers and as a result, growing together. When two Youtubers collaborate like this, the stats of both increase exponentially.

Because followers and fans are an abundant “resource”, there’s no need to be competitive about it. Fans of one can also enjoy the contents of another. And even identical contents shine, thanks to their own unique individuality.

While there are some Youtubers and influencers out there who reached an impressive success on their own, you will notice that the most successful ones almost always have done at least one collaboration or “selfless promo” in the past.

You can certainly try and grow alone, but the rate at which you will grow this way will be vastly impaired.

The benefits of disregarding a competitive mindset

We’re all driven by success. We all want to become big in whatever we do. And unfortunately, the ones who are most eager often tend to kick and bite around themselves, trying to keep anyone and everyone from interfering with their plans.

They are blinded by their ego and don’t see the chances they are wasting.

But by helping others, you’ll leave a much better impression of yourself. In return, they will use their newfound popularity or responsibility to lift you up too, if just to return that favor.

“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”

I’m sure many people know the above quote. And they all tend to think in terms of “I need to be friends with powerful people”. That’s only half the truth. You don’t need to be friends with powerful people. But if you do your best to help the people you know to gain powerful positions, then you’re set for the same type of success.

Don’t perceive your peers as competitors who fight against you for the throne. See them as people who collaborate with you on the way to it. There’s enough space for each and every one of you.

Cross-pollination and Virulence

The success of such collaborations stems from mechanics like cross-pollination or virulence.

The more you promote and share the work of your peers, the more they will help you the same. This can be effective if someone has a huge social media following, as their followers can quickly become yours as well. You’ll have a much better reach this way. The more people you’re friends with, the higher your reach will be.

I personally promote and share the work of my friends to the best of my efforts, sometimes even forgetting my own stuff in the process. Of course, I want to grow. But I want them to grow too. And by combining my efforts with these people, we all grow together.

I have several friends on social media who have more than 40,000 followers. I promote their work too. And they promote mine, which means they expose my articles to more than 40,000 possible readers. That’s a number I can hardly reach on my own at this point.

Networking is the most important step in any career. That’s the “who you know” part. But it doesn’t mean trying to bewitch your boss while making your peers look like incompetent losers. On the contrary. Your peers are the only ones who your boss will listen to when it comes to judging your value.

The biggest success always comes to teams

If you want to become successful, you need a strong team to back you up. By making many friends along the way, you’ll gain much more support at the end of it. If you instead keep to yourself and try to reach your goal alone, before anyone else, then you’ll likely fail.

So don’t try to put your own work above the work of others. Don’t compete with them. Instead, opt to collaborate. Help them grow and your own growth will soon enough skyrocket above your expectations. Not just thanks to you, but thanks to the whole platoon.

Kevin is an editor and writer for the ILLUMINATION publication. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.