The Competitor To Be Feared . . .

"The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all,

but goes on making his own business better all the time."

-- Henry Ford

Whether it is in business or sports or other parts of our lives, it will serve us best to focus on what we want, what we do, how we do it and how we feel about it. To always be looking over your shoulder at competition approaching or looking ahead and the competition's behind--either one and both are not serving us.

Sometimes we use competition as a benchmark; a standard; a performance bar to see if we measure up, how close we are, or how we are doing relative to the standard set by the competition. What a waste of time that is. If we spent half as much time focusing on our own standards, constantly adjusting those standards to serve our customers in the best way possible, we would excel as never before.

It pays to have pure focus on what our customers want, what we want, what we do for our customers, what more we can do for our customers, expressing how we feel about our customers and the like. That's where the money is! It is is providing value and always increasing that value relative to what our customers pay for our products or services. That best serves us as our goal. Looking at what the competition is doing or not doing is giving up all our own business in pursuit of someone else's. Maybe it might be easier to close shop and go to work for them!

How about a different way: Lead! How about if we become the benchmark of service and value in the world of business? How about if everyone else is asking how in the world we do it and how we make so much money in the process? How about it if we are constantly pushing the limits of our service to our customers and the world? How about if we pay absolutely no attention to what everyone else is doing?

What do you think? How about it?