A “Corpetitve” Mind: Is Competition Good or Bad

Competing through uniqueness, and winning with purpose.

Competition may have different connotations and meanings under different situations or context. 'Competition' in biology means the cutthroat struggle for life's essentials.  Competition is part of the natural dynamics of life. It is part of the genetic bias of every living thing in nature as a survival-seeking mindset. There are ample examples of competitive behaviors in the animal world. That is the basis for their survival and thriving lives. However, humans are intelligent beings, if we really are as intelligent as we claim to be, we shall have principles and disciplines to discern the positive motivation or negative energy behind the competition. Whether we like it or not, as long as humans are unique, their mindsets, opinions, cultures, lives, and views etc are equally unique and diversified. That results in both collaboration and competition depending on the context and situations. But many times the competitions turn to be the "one-upmanship, superiority" battles. With today’s digital hyperconnectivity and interdependence, is it time to step into the new hybrid era of corpetition (cooperation + competition)?

Competition between ideas and values drives social progress. Over time things change, we humans are developing, growing and competition and choice are part of that process. If we have two or more ideas, we have competition because of those ideas. Without competition, there would be no innovation. Without innovation, there would be no progress. Competition, in and of itself, is not inherently bad. The goals of competition can be bad and the competitive arena can produce a myriad of negative externalities, but competition can also lead to enhanced quality of life through innovation and progress.  

Workplace competition is not always positive. The problem is how do you obtain the power to change things if we have a system where the way to reach the top is to trample on others. It can create unhealthy rivalries that result in workers resenting one another, which is especially true if one person or team always wins the competitions. This can result in a gap between the "haves" and "have-not" that may prove to be unhealthy in internal work relations. Competition can also create undue stress that may actually prove to be counter-productive to some worker's efforts. Some workers don't perform well under pressure and are actually more productive when the work environment allows for a more easygoing approach to getting work done. Fierce competition may also result in a "wick” or evil doing.  It is management's job to determine when healthy competition is in order and when co-operation is preferable. The only real competition is the competition with yourself. Try to increase your knowledge and to improve yourself every day. To increase your capabilities and skills in order to join a collaboration process with other stakeholders, to build interesting and innovative projects.

Competition without values is the start of destruction. If humanity focused on rising all up, seeing the value in each human soul, we would not have unnecessary competition as we would look for the greater good and betterment of humanity. This will and would take a new mindset for humanity as the current earthly belief systems well indoctrinated are contrary to this view. Competition is neither good nor bad it just is. By observing nature over millions of years it is obvious in mechanisms like evolution that competition is a necessary part of both creating and dealing with the changing circumstances of our lives, in the world, solar system and the universe, but competition without values is the start point of destruction. 

Compete for uniqueness shall be encouraged. “Win at all costs," “compete for everything” attitude that may even bring out the worst in some workers.' The point is that competition shouldn’t mean we want to be the same. It means we want to be the best we can be. If the competition is friendly and lighthearted, it can really help a person to improve without being made to feel less than.. And more critically, the management should encourage talent to compete for the uniqueness, not compete for the best of everything, where do greedy, ruthless, scheming, and victory at any cost fit into the picture. It is the energy behind the competition that matters. If we had the world without negative competition, people would no longer be looking over their shoulders in business; be afraid that someone was out to get them or take their job. We all have talents each on our own, without negative competition, we would be able to use our talents and skills for the betterment of humanity.

Leverage is the key: look at the sky with all the stars and planets in equilibrium / stable status .... on its own as well as from forces of the other. It is more important to focus on how to leverage it rather than branding it as good or bad, wanted or unwanted, positive or negative etc. there are competing forces of collaboration and competition that need to work together. When competition is allowed to run rife it is prone to create obscene results. So it is not a choice between continuing as we are or returning to live in caves. We need to enter a new era in which we consider the connectedness of our actions and their consequences, both in time and space, for the betterment of life for everyone and everything on the planet. Perhaps it's called growing up.

Winning with purpose. The real issue is the motivation or purpose behind the competition. That purpose can be to achieve some positive outcome for all or to achieve some particular outcome for a select few. Understanding a human system requires us to employ empathy (especially towards ourselves); but also rational and technical analysis that is why this part of individual and societal development is so exciting. We are starting to bring together science and philosophy like never before, this is our golden age for cognizance. We need the blend of people with different experiences and areas of knowledge that keep pulling us back to look at ourselves from different angles. Today’s problems both in organizations and in the world are seldom technical, they are nearly all based on poor human relationships. It’s caused because our story is of competition whereas it should be collaboration. If we really are as intelligent was we claim to be, we would do much better with cooperation - sharing knowledge and experiences and thus gaining a better understanding.

We are all just learning, and universe made us unique with individual awareness so that we could find ourselves first and then find each other. We can offer something unique and wonderful and together we can make music and poetry, we can sing and dance and discover what the stars are made of. We can explore our Oceans and Deserts, the atoms and molecules that make up everything around us, explore those things together. A cooperative mind lives in coexistence with other life forms. A competitive mind fights them and would always seek ways to exploit them, and that is exactly what we see happening in humanity. Ultimately, competition or cooperation can be used for a greater purpose/cause to elevate oneself as well as society. Or they can be abused/misused for a selfish/unjust unethical/ immoral purposes as well. Competition to further the world of pursuing ego = bad. Competition to catalyze innovation = good.