A Constant Contest?

I have come to realize that in life, we are almost ALWAYS in competition whether consciously or unconsciously.Check out the following definition of competition from The Merristem-Webster Dictionary: “…active demand by two or more organisms or kinds of organisms for some resource in short supply”, emphasis on the phrase "in short supply".

Have you ever wondered why on the average, we spend the first two decades of our lives getting an education? From Primary School, to Secondary School, to College, we study hard to graduate with good grades. During those years, we write exams, participate in sporting events, get into fights, play games and generally engage in activities that expose us to the concept of winning and losing.

On graduating from school, we proceed to the labour market, where it would seem success is heavily hinged on competition. We compete against fellow graduates to emerge the best candidate for the job, we compete against fellow colleagues to get a promotion, we compete against fellow managers to become the CEO, and even companies compete against rival companies to win customers. Even if self employed, we still compete against other professionals in our field to get customers and contracts.



Can you see the pattern of competition? We spend the first twenty years or more of our lives getting an education so we can make enough money to live comfortably, and maybe even help others who are not so fortunate. Right? Now check this, the characteristics of money include general acceptability, possession of face and scarcity. Yes SCARCITY. Therefore, if one of the major characteristic of money is scarcity, and competition occurs when resources are in short supply (or scarce), it follows that most of our endeavours in life are actually a conscious or unconscious competition for money which is a scarce resource.

Imagine the world economic system as a pyramid where there are many people at the bottom. The higher you go, the fewer people you find and the more money you have access to because there are fewer people at that level to beat to the money. Millionaires will tell you that once they got their first big break, moving higher on the financial ladder was relatively easier, and this includes people that struggled for years to make their first million. This can simply mean that on the higher level of the economic pyramid, there are more resources to go round because there are fewer people to share with and on the lower level of the pyramid, the struggle is fiercer.

Evolution theorists like Darwin say that competition exists NATURALLY among living organisms (humans and animals) so long as they are living together in the same environment. In fact Philosophers and Psychologists agree that most living organisms have innate biological traits which drive them to compete as a pre-condition for survival. This means that even after the basic environmental needs have been met, human beings move on to compete for other things such as fame, fortune, prestige…in short, we are ever competing!

However while the competitive instinct exists in everyone, it exists in varying degrees and that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is why our world is not in chaos. Some have had their competitive natures tempered by nurture so that it is no longer an all consuming motivation, some simply have learnt to mask theirs behind honey dripping words and sweet smiles, while some remain extremely competitive (often expressed in over ambition and aggressiveness). Such is the beauty of a balanced world. A world that has evolved into a pseudo collaborative one due to the realization that team work boosts our competitive advantage as individuals, groups, companies and nations. What an irony!