Naturally, some people are more competitive than others, but the vast majority of people are competitive by nature. If you don't think you're competitive, consider this: have you ever felt a pang of want, jealousy, or envy when admiring another person's achievements or lifestyle? If you answered yes, you are competitive; otherwise, you would be unconcerned with what others possess.
Before anyone gets offended, let me state unequivocally that I am not equating healthy desire or competition with obnoxious envy.
There's a thin line between excessive jealously and a competitive spirit that drives you to want what another person has. Let's have a look at a specific example:
First, there's Joe, a regular guy who has a hard time paying his payments each month. He sees Nelson on The Apprentice one evening while watching television and thinks to himself, "I wish I had what he has." It's inexcusable that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth when I'm on the verge of losing my home."
Mary, who lives across town, is another person who is barely able to pay her payments each month. She, too, is watching the aforementioned television episode, and she's having similar thoughts, albeit they're not quite the same: "I wish I had what he had." In fact, I'm planning to enrol in a real estate course and understand the business so that I might emulate his success in the future."
Both of the individuals in the above scenarios would desire to have Nelson's status and money, but only one has a realistic chance of genuinely changing his or her lifestyle. Joe is displaying pure, unadulterated envy, an unpleasant and self-destructive mindset that drives him to rationalise that the rich become richer while the poor get poorer. Life isn't fair to him, and there's nothing he can do about it.
Mary, on the other hand, acknowledges Nelson as a clever businessman who made his wealth in real estate. Sure, he got a head start with his father's inherited properties, but anyone with enough determination and vision could understand the real estate market and get their own piece of the pie. She's embracing her competitive nature; she wants what Nelson has, and she'll do everything she can to get it for herself.
The examples above are greatly exaggerated and, quite frankly, unrealistic for most of us. As much as we'd like to be billionaires, it's simply not in the cards. But that doesn't rule out the possibility of becoming extremely wealthy, perhaps even millionaires, if that is our goal. All it takes is a lot of hard work, determination, and a healthy sense of competition.
While religions and society have taught us to shun such feelings, they aren't necessarily harmful. Yes, you are travelling down a bitter and self-destructive route if you allow your desires to turn into jealousy and envy, but if you instead convert your aspirations into an opportunity to help others, you are walking down a positive and self-destructive path. Instead, embrace your competitive instinct by converting your aspirations into an honest strategy to match their accomplishments.
So go after what you want. Embrace and nourish your inner competitive spirit so that it emerges and directs your daily actions. Competition is an excellent motivator, and few of the world's "elite" businessmen and individuals would have achieved their goals and accomplishments without it.
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