How to Escape Competition Through Authenticity

I remember when I just started Okara Brands. The competition was seemingly intense and others would go to unimaginable extents to rise above. It was a tussle and I spent sleepless nights contemplating how to stay afloat in the game. This bothered me a lot, I kept on wondering if this is what business is all about and if I will be able to survive with these kinds of practices. It really got me asking myself if life was all about competition and if it ever ends.

I must say I had much of a zero-sum game mentality (one man’s win is another man’s loss) about success in business. One day, while discussing with my mentor, I asked him what his thoughts were about this. I was mesmerized by his response, he quoted Naval; “escape competition through authenticity”. He made me understand that competition as seen commonly in our setting is dumb. He explained that oftentimes the market is large and unexplored and that competition makes competitors to only focus on fighting over a tiny market segment.

He made me understand that instead of competing with others, I should set a high standard for my company and products and compete against them. That I should focus on creating amazing value for customers, do a lot R&D, and push innovation way up. I realized that most of us in Cameroon easily reach a ceiling point with the product or service we are offering and spend more time fighting each other when there is still a lot to be done to attract new customers and to explore new markets and other market segments. He also shared with me PayPal co-founder, Peter Thiel’s talk with Standford MBA students titled “competition is for losers“. An awesome and in-depth exploration of this idea.

This saved me a lot of headaches. It was a big relief for me. I realized that Okara Brands’ real competition is with its future self. The real competition is meeting high-quality standards that rise above the expectations of our customers. It doesn’t mean we stopped observing the market or stopped checking on what others are doing. We simply didn’t formulate our strategy based on our competitors’ moves. This became a new philosophy for us and it became part of our company culture. Since then, I have invested more energy in discovering myself and spend more time polishing my unique and specific skills. This piece of advice has yielding great results and I’m very grateful to my mentor. Mentors are very important, find someone or people you can have serious conversations with, about the things that matter.

The sky is indeed very wide for all birds to fly freely. Set high standards and aim to focus on doing what’s best for your clients. Meeting and going above their needs should be your primary goal. If this post resonates with you, drop a comment below. What do you think about competition in Cameroon?