My views on competitors

[mjstrand]

My view on competitors is kind of weird. A competitor is anyone who works against you. As for people working against you, that is great! That means you are in a market that is interesting to other people. Whenever I identify a new competitor, I take a moment to relish the thought that someone is interested, and then put my personal focus back towards moving forward with sales, and let the competition trail behind me.

I have discovered that when I focus on what other people are doing, my time is not spent moving forward, and as a result, our progress does not move forward. Its like trying to drive my car forward, looking behind me like I am backing up. Who knows where the car will go, but probably not where I want it to. I have had many occasions in the past where I could have sued someone for "wronging" me. I usually didn't go after them because it would have diverted my focus into a defensive position. Even in a large company, that slows future growth. When I am the main person doing the work, it stops it. Focusing on the offensive position may not give me the short term satisfaction by getting a wrong-doer, but I've found the life will take care of them one way or another because they do wrong to most everyone.

Being a technical guy, I don't like sales. I've been learning that I have to be on the phone with customers to make sales and move forward. Although I have a hard time staying on that not-so-nice task, it needs to be done. My advice is forget about people doing little nasty's and give them a real reason to come after you by making loads of sales.