1.It is a classic human err to think there are only a finite, limited number of customers. Scarcity thinking is common and dominates. My competitors are prone to this mindset. I am kicking their butts.

There are an unlimited number of potential customers. If you are afraid of competition, there is a good chance that it is because you’re not focused on the right thing. You need to focus on building your business by creating new customers – not fighting with competitors over existing customers.

(In a recent article captioned “10 Mistakes … ” I discussed this issue in some detail. I emailed the article to you.)

Your greatest challenge is not competitors. It’s that most potential customers are indifferent to your product, don’t know it exists, and consequently will never buy.

To the extent that competitors exist they expand market awareness. They are advertizing your product for you for free.

If you’re routinely focused on what’s in the best interest of your customer, you’ll continually capture new customers and likely take new found customers away from competitors.

Competition expands the market and costs you nothing.

Most competitors will be out of business within one or two years. This fact is true of all emerging markets.

If you remain focused on capturing customers, on serving their interests, you’ll pick up increasingly more customers as the market expands.

2.Your greatest impediment to success is you. If only you could be a more focused person, a better business person, you could make more money.

If only you would realize more of your innate potential, you could achieve more.

If only you would ignite a fire of burning desire within yourself, who knows what you could achieve.

Enter your competitor. Bless her!

Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods would not be legends if not for their competitors.

To bring out the best in ourselves we need competitors. Welcome your competitors with open arms, embrace them as good friends because, rightly perceived, your best competitor is your best friend. That is, of course, if you allow competition to bring out the best in you.

If you develop an abundance mentality, you’ll realize that your competitor can help you grow as a person, and as a business.

You and your competitor can both gain from competition. You can both gain because there’s not a limited market.

The potential market is unlimited. Your competitor can help you learn to develop the market.

Personally, I wish I had better competitors to help me sharpen my axe.

3.There is something fundamental, basic, in this issue of competition. It goes to the heart of a matter affecting the quality of our lives – our human condition. You have to give to get. The more you give the more you get. This is a law predicated on the human condition, i.e., we all seek our self-interest.

There are, however, effective and ineffective ways in which to pursue one’s self interest. To the extent that you seek to help others first, you will be far more successful.

I dealt with this issue thoroughly in a recent article sent to you via email captioned: “The Secrets …” Here I just want to reiterate, given the human condition, it is smart to look out for the interests of others before seeking your own. In a future article I will show how the most successful businesses partner with their best competitors to grow their business tenfold. The greatest impediment to unleashing our potential is our failure to fully appreciate our need to help others. Yes, even our competitors – maybe especially our competitors as they mean more to us.