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#Competition:

I believe there’s a right and a wrong way to be competitive. This applies to sports, business, creative work—anything. Either you have a healthy mindset, or you don’t.

A healthy mindset:

When she competed in the 1976 Olympics as Bruce, Caitlyn Jenner was a good competitor. When a reporter asked Bruce about Mykola Avilov, the Ukrainian who won decathlon gold at the previous Olympics in 1972, he said:

“We get along very, very well; there’s no rivalry there or anything.” He shook his head. “I saw a quote one time—‘I love my competitors because they bring the most out of me’—and I think that’s the situation with myself and Avilov.”

Good competitiveness is predicated on your success.

An unhealthy mindset:

Daniel Plainview is the fictional villain protagonist of There Will Be Blood. He’s an oil tycoon, ruthless, manipulative, cold and detached. He’s fueled by his ego, his ambition, his insecurities.

“Are you an angry man, Henry?” Plainview asks his associate. They’re drinking whiskey.

“About what?” Henry says.

“Are you envious?” Plainview says. “Do you get envious?”

“I—” Henry is stammering now, “I don’t think so, no.”

Plainview is speaking loudly now. “I have a competition in me,” he says, drunk, uninhibited. “I want no one else to succeed!”

Bad competitiveness is predicated on your opponent’s failure.

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#Competition