While this particular essay was not composed with the Olympics in mind—(truly) I feel that having a discussion about healthy rivalry is extremely important.
And to best illustrate my point, we turn to Friedrich Nietzsche—pre “God is dead because we have killed him” (Gay Science—no, ‘happy’ Science) and go to Human-all-too-Human where in Aphorism 503 titled “Envy and Jealousy” he states:
“Envy and jealousy are the private parts of the human soul. The instinct of competition is perhaps the best instinct: but there is no victim, and no one to be pitied. We want to be the best, but not at the expense of others; we want to overcome, but not to destroy. We need a competitor at equal footing, for without the contest, the Greek soul would have become a desert. As the Greek relieved the envious person by the contest, so he also relieved the person who was the object of envy. For the latter, the contest was the only means of being able to show his superiority without being hated for it. The envy of others was the goad that spurred him on to ever greater achievements. Without the contest, the Greek would have become a barbarian.”
What does this mean? That at work, or the gym, or in life we need someone to compete with and that competitor must have equal footing with you, and your intent in defeating them comes from respect to improve yourself—and them.
And competition does not have to be at work, or in the gym, or even known to the other person; it can be an internal competition as well.
I could recall antiquity with the competition between the armies of Scipio Africanus and Hannibal, or the medieval clash between Richard the Lionheart and Saladin, the Duke of Wellington and Napoleon, or if we want to go into movies, Rocky and Apollo Creed.
And as Rocky III showed, and history has shown, that if you don’t have an equal competitor, on equal footing, and have zero respect, then your own skill dwindles.
Healthy competition should be separate from a cut-throat world where individual loyalties are tested, but even in regard to great companies the value of competition allows for bigger and better things for all.
And on a personal level, think of times when you competed with someone, maybe in not a quantitative way (like a physical activity), but a more qualitative in which you saw work that was objectively inferior, yet praise was granted on it. Someone being praised for inferior work is a pity victory for them and a deterrent for you.
A true rival, a true competitor, is someone you can yield to, smile when they get one over on you, and use that experience to strengthen your resolve, your game.
And get praise from them as well.
This might sound very cliché.
And maybe it is, but we sometimes mistake a rival for an enemy, whereas a rival should sometimes be your friend.
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