by Roohi

Created on: December 04, 2008   Last Updated: March 27, 2012

Modern life is definitely competitive. There are no doubts in my mind about that. In fact probably no one has any doubts about that. We compete as children in schools. We compete as teenagers in colleges. We compete as employees in an office setting. We compete as professionals in our own line of work. We even compete with ourselves.

But is competition a good thing? I believe so. Consider a situation that the people residing in my locality had to face. We had only one cable operator in our area. As time went on, his charges kept on going up and up month after month. But since there was no alternative available, there was no choice available but to pay him the amount he demanded. But as a few more big operators entered the market and gave stiff competition to him, he actually had to cut down on his charges and offer more services to his customers.

So competition is indeed important. If you want to hire an advertising agency for your business, you will not accept the first person who comes along to offer his/her services. You will look at a minimum of probably 4 to 5 advertising agencies. You will pick an agency on the basis of their portfolio, their experience and their charges. You will pick the agency which has the best portfolio. The agency which has the most experience in preparing advertising campaigns for a business like yours. And you will pick the agency that charges reasonably.

Competition offers us a variety of choices in each and every area of our lives. From choosing one cereal over the other to choosing to buy one house over the other, it is there everywhere. It offers us more choices and more opportunities to get exactly what we want.

Competition also makes us strive to be better. If a software programmer stops upgrading his/her skills in a world where technology is changing on a daily basis, he/she would be left behind in this competitive world. If we want to be ahead of our competitors, we will have to constantly improve our skills.

As long as competition is healthy, it is a good thing and will remain something which is much needed in this world. However, when competition gets out of hand, it is then that it becomes unhealthy. In an attempt to get a high-profile job, a person might prefer to use unfair means than use his/her own abilities. This is not what competition is about.

If our children cheat to win a quiz competition, we should immediately show them why and how wrong it is. Competition is about competing, learning what we are capable of and improving our skills. The important thing about a competition is not whether we win or lose. The important thing is that how effective and fair we are as competitors. So we should be good competitors in this world. But competition should never be at the cost of our souls.

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