Rhonda Abrams The Passionate Entrepreneur

I've spent a lot of time thinking about the role of competition in business, especially smaller businesses. Conventional business theory -- the kind you read in business-school textbooks -- is that a business needs to be focused on beating its competition. Coca-Cola spends a lot of time worrying about Pepsi, and vice-versa. But if you're not running a multinational, multimillion dollar company, is such a focus necessary? Or even healthy? I don't think so.

During the dotcom "bubble," business analysts and venture capitalists emphasized how critical it was to get big fast -- to beat the competition in capturing a market. This is called "first mover advantage." Fledgling companies spent truckloads of money on expensive ads (remember those sock puppets?), because common wisdom was that only a few companies in each business category would survive.

Virtually none of the companies that followed that beat-the-other-guy path are around today.

Meanwhile, many of the companies that paid little attention to being first or biggest, but instead tended to running their business well, are still around. They didn't get a lot of money from venture capitalists, so they didn't have the pressure to grow large quickly for a quick return on investment.

Rather, they focused on coming up with products or services that actually made money, serving their customers well, and running their operations to keep costs down. You may not know the names of these companies because they didn't do a lot to attract attention; they just took care of business. They still are.

It's human nature to compare ourselves to others. Studies of happiness indicate that our perception of our own well-being is determined in large part by how we think we stack up to others around us.

It's natural to respect winners, especially those who have worked hard to achieve their success. My eyes, too, well up when seeing a proud medal-winner, standing atop the platform, flag rising, anthem playing. But our society often becomes obsessed with winning rather than with excellence.

Ancient Olympians competed only as individuals, not as members of teams. The concept behind the ancient games was of individual achievement through competition, but the goal was to achieve arête, or "excellence," not just winning. Competition, then, was to bring out excellence -- not to define it.

You can define excellence in your own business, indeed in your own life, without focusing on beating the competition. Look at what you excel at -- your company's "core competencies" -- and strive to be the best you can be at those.

Success comes to those who strive for excellence and achievement rather than those who spend their energy trying to defeat the other guy or gal. Excel at your own game, and the competition will have to worry about you.