I enjoy watching lawn tennis. This interest germinated since childhood watching Boris Baker, Agasi, Sampras, etc play in grand slams. In the late 2000’s I preferred Nadal over Federer. Slowly I grew over this rivalry. Now I enjoy watching more with a disinterested appreciation of the skills of Nadal, Federer, Novak, and other players. I do not even consider competing with any of the great players, why? Because it is not in my consideration set. Forget about going to the lawn tennis court; I never even held a racket in my hand. Many of you must be having such similar interests be it Cricket or watching movies. We do not compete with those whom we enjoy watching play a character or play a sport. We just enjoy and come back to work. So, suddenly why compete when we look at our colleagues? Is it a key to success? Nope apparently not.
I had this question in my mind for as long as a decade when I started blogging about Business to the Buddha. When I wrote my first blog I interpreted interdependent co-arising as “When Ferrari and Honda run on the racing track competing for the first spot, they are racing to offer the best product to their customers.” This interpretation leaves room for competition at an individual level.
Key to success
These days we keep on competing. If you remember, there is a competition for even “your shirt is white compared to mine!” In most of our race, we engage with “other”, it is an outwards journey. My point of view is competition with self.
Two weeks back I wrote about how my friend was an inspiration for improving myself. I watched the movie Fashion last week. A good story of rivalry and moving above it. If we open our eyes we can learn so many things from some any places. In this case, it was the movie Fashion. We end up outwardly and compete with others. Instead, we must try to be a better version of ourselves, isn’t it?
The above image was so apt that I borrowed it for this blog post. If I look back, had I tried to compete with Nikhil I probably might have got into anxiety or frustration. Nikhil was an inspiration for improving myself there was a lot of learning. Thank you once again, Nikhil. Nikhil was an inspiration for improving myself there was a lot of learning. Thank you once again, Nikhil. The key to success is improving ourselves and being a better version of self (1.01)^365 on a daily basis, focus and competing with self.
Image source – LinkedIn timeline of Mr Deepak Taunk title also courtesy of Mr Taunk