There is a paradox to competition. Most people in business would prefer not to have any, yet competition is necessary to the prosperity we enjoy. As Dr. Scott Galloway remarks in a recent “No Mercy/No Malice” blog post, “Competition over scarce resources is at the heart of our evolution as a species and the success of Western democracies.”
Compounding the paradox is that those who triumph over competition try to “retract the ladder behind them…and winners’ lust for competition wanes after they’ve won. Why let anybody on the medals podium if you can occupy higher ground and repel anybody who gets near the stage?”
When the winners attempt to eliminate what led to their success, we all lose. In his blog post, Dr. Galloway points to the sports world as the model of competition that might better serve us. In short, we need “Umpires, Not Kings.”
