Audio version available:
Competition is nothing new to business. If you are a business owner or work for a company, you know that there is constant competition unless your company or the company you work for is a monopoly. If your company is a monopoly, you basically own the whole market and don’t really have to worry about the competition.
However, if you are in a competitive market and you’re not a monopoly. Then you need to understand the crucial principle I’m about to mention to avoid going bankrupt. I learned this principle when I first started my business. For some background information, my business was in a competitive market where companies were constantly trying to elevate their position within the market.
That is why we had to do the same thing to not go bankrupt. However, we learned offense is not always the best thing to do. Since our competitors, the big corporations had deep-pockets. They were able to play offense for a long time without being exhausted or experiencing financial turmoil.
Unfortunately, we did not have the luxury of having money to spend on competition, so playing offense and constantly competing would bankrupt us. And we actually did go bankrupt. That is how I learned sometimes you have to be defensive in life. We should have focused on creating a good product and finding product-market fit.
This is a crucial lesson for every business in the world. Do not compete if you do not have the power to do so. Especially startups need to be more defensive and focus on developing a good product and finding product-market fit.
Authors Note
We wish our readers don’t just simply read this story but rather also reflect on the lessons mentioned. See if you can implement any of the lessons taught in your life.
Book: The art of war by Sun Tzu (Amazon link)
Lesson(s):
- “Defense is for times of insufficiency, attack is for times of surplus” – Sun Tzu
Notice: All of the content above is fictional.