Competition

The August 21st Business Week has a good feature on competitiveness. An essay by Joe Torre on winning is the lead article and does a great job of framing what competition is all about: “Competing at the highest level is not about winning. It’s about preparation, courage, understanding and nurturing your people, and heart. Winning is the result”.

He describes competing in terms of what you can control: Being expertly prepared, overcoming fear of failure, and remembering that a competitive team is comprised of people who need to feel necessary. “A winner is somebody who goes out … every day and exhausts himself trying to get something accomplished. Being able to get the most from their ability. That’s what winning is all about”.

Other teasers:  Experiment Fearlessly, Obsess about customers not rivals, Get personal, Stay hungry.

Later today I’ll have the chance to hear from some of my entrepreneurial heroes at the Churchill Club’s Startup Success program. Guy Kawasaki will moderate a panel of speakers including:

• Lauren Elliott, Founder, Third Rock Mining
• Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder and CEO, LinkedIn
• Joe Kraus, Co-Founder and CEO, JotSpot
• Daniel Mattes ,Co-Founder and CTO, Jajah
• Alex Welch , Co-Founder and CEO, Photobucket

This should be a lot of fun since I admire all of these entrepreneurs and use services from three of their companies! (Plus Guy's books and blog).  I’ll let you know how it goes.