title: No Contest: The Case Against Competition
author:  Alfie Kohn 
description: Contending that competition in all areasschool, family, sports and businessis destructive, and that success so achieved is at the expense of another's failure, Kohn, a correspondent for USA Today, advocates a restructuring of our institutions to replace competition with cooperation. He persuasively demonstrates how the ingrained American myth that competition is the only normal and desirable way of lifefrom Little Leagues to the presidencyis counterproductive, personally and for the national economy, and how psychologically it poisons relationships, fosters anxiety and takes the fun out of work and play. He charges that competition is a learned phenomenon and denies that it builds character and self-esteem. Kohn's measures to encourage cooperation in lieu of competition include promoting noncompetitive games, eliminating scholastic grades and substitution of mutual security for national security.<br />Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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  ![TitleArt](../images/00001.jpeg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Muhammad Ali  
  With Richard Durham  
    
  Edited by Toni Morrison
  
  
  
  
  
  ![finla1_0003_001](../images/00002.jpeg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  **To Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sr.**  
  **and**  
  **Odessa Clay**
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  **_Cash and Bird_  
  With love**
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ACKNOWLEDGMENT
  
  
  
  
  
  In order for a prizefighter to be successful and come out with what belongs to
  him, he has to be two separate people in two different places at the same
  time—in the gym and in the lawyer’s office, in the ring and in the
  accountant’s office. And since no one can be two people, a prizefighter must
  have a partner, a brother, a friend, a counsel, a twin in thinking and
  aspiration who will be the other self he needs.
  
  
  
  
  
  Herbert Muhammad is all of these things. There’s been no single decision I’ve
  ever made, unrevealed or in the pages that follow, where he hasn’t played the
  prominent and decisive part.
  
  
  
  
  
  It was Herbert who, during the time I was completely barred fr