When I was in 7th grade I loved playing football. There came a time when we had\u00a0to play a match against another school and the team captain was to be chosen from my class. I was one of the two candidates and the other one was my best friend, Ali. Driven by the sense of competition, I had to practice more and get better at what I did. So, I decided to join a local football club (Eagle Club) \u00a0and didn’t invite Ali to do the same.<\/p>\n
Long story short, I became the captain (i.e. won the competition) but I lost a very good friend. As it turns out Ali found out about my local football club membership and that I could have asked him to come along with me. While the competition was healthy but winning came at a hefty price i.e. we started having arguments about it. And finally, the conflict led us to lose the football match due to the poor coordination between us.<\/p>\n
Since that day, I have always preferred to win without a fight. Conflicts are inevitable but a war helps no one. While defeat could be humiliating, victory could be too costly.\u00a0I used to think that competition was healthy. Most of us do! I thought that by competing to be the best, I\u2019d be more successful, people would like me more, and life would be awesome. Instead, each time I \u201cwon\u201d and achieved what I wanted by competing, I lost someone.<\/p>\n
I want you to know that I didn’t do any of that with malice. In fact, I’m sure I was not completely aware of the fact and it was all just out of habit. So, it doesn’t matter if you have the good intentions or not, competitions can hurt. Why do we compete? I think it has more to do with our primitive reflexes and natural instincts.<\/p>\n
WordPress has one of the best online communities. People care less about competition and pay more attention to the software itself. While conflicts and difference of opinion do exist \u2014 which is pretty common in any open source community \u2014 what matters the most is that we are a compact whole.<\/p>\n
“It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” \u2014\u00a0Charles Darwin<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Carrie Dils wrote a piece The Shocking Truth: I\u2019m Not Your Competition<\/a>\u00a0when the organizer canceled a meetup by thinking of her as a competition and the WordPress community<\/a> lost<\/strong>. I think I am facing something similar, though, I won’t get into the details of it.<\/p>\n
Why I Am Not Your Competition!#<\/a><\/h2>\n
I cannot express this in a better way than Carrie<\/p>\n
I realize YOU may not be worried about ME as competition, so feel free to pretend I\u2019m the freelancer sitting one table over from you at the coffee shop\u2026\u00a0Call me crazy. Just don\u2019t call me your competition.\u00a0As fellow WordPress junkies, we\u2019re not all competing for the same slice of pie. I\u2019d rather spend my efforts collaborating with you and learning from you than calling you my competition and shutting the door on a possibility.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In this post, I want to write down my vision and idea of success as a WordPress developer. I want to make this a public knowledge, that WordPress is personal to me which makes WordPress community my home. That today, I choose collaboration over competition for better business and relationships. How about a few reasons to why I am not your competition.<\/p>\n
My Values#<\/a><\/h3>\n
I do not strive to outdo another for acknowledgment, a prize, supremacy, profit, and\u00a0to engage in a contest. WordPres community as I mentioned is my home. I am more interested in building better relationships to work with you and to co-operate then to fight. I don’t want to snatch your opportunity to do something good, in contrary, I want to help you succeed. Competition may help make me faster but I don’t want that, I want to be better and that’s what collaboration does.<\/p>\n
The 80-20 Rule#<\/a><\/h3>\n
At some stage of life, everyone has to compete.\u00a0Competition is not bad but competition for the sake of competition is bad. While competition is a reality,\u00a0is there really as much competition as you think?\u00a0The Pareto Principle<\/a> says that 20% of any population will create 80% of the results. So not only will 20% of the football players on a team generate 80% of the goals, but, 20% of the businesses in any given niche will make 80% of the sales. This means that no, there is not as much competition as you think, but the competition amongst that 20% might probably be fierce. What can we do about that?<\/p>\n
I Am \u2260 You\u00a0\u2260 Me#<\/a><\/h3>\n
There, I said it. The question\u00a0you should ask\u00a0yourself is whether your skillset is exactly similar to mine? Do we have the same niche or forte? In that niche if there were only you, would you be able to handle all the business there is?<\/p>\n
E.g. Let me borrow your imagination since it’s a terrible thing to waste. Let’s say, just like me, you had an Electrical Engineering background, you started as a blogger, two years later you consulted as an internet marketer, then you learned how to design and develop, and experimented with both of these fields for four years to finally end up with WordPress as a Full Stack & Frontend Developer<\/a>. Even then you might be interested in building plugins and I might be into themes. Then there is the difference in the way we would code. The probability of us fighting for the same client is what?<\/p>\n
The Fear#<\/a><\/h3>\n
Will I get credit for my contribution? And who wants to be one of many, just a cog in the wheel? Will I lose business by sharing my ideas and having someone else take advantage of them? These questions come from a place of fear or lack. But what’s important is that no two people can be identical. If we both develop WordPress themes, I’m sure you would develop something way too different than mine. Even if we end up competing for the same audience, here’s what you should do \u2014<\/p>\n
If we both develop WordPress themes, I’m sure you would develop something way too different than mine. Maybe, I have a certain skillset to offer you, that you don’t know of? Maybe we both don’t know how well we can work together? Even if we end up competing for the same audience, here’s what you should do \u2014 reach out<\/a>\u00a0and we both will see if there’s a possibility to work together. If we ended up collaborating we may help that same audience get the most bang of their buck?<\/p>\n
Collaboration = A\u00a0Dent\u2122#<\/a><\/h3>\n
I have big dreams and I don’t want to end up alone when I achieve something. I\u00a0cannot be the master of all trades. I love to compete with myself. This type of competition allows collaboration.\u00a0Inspiration without collaboration is just a lot of great ideas that evaporate into thin air.<\/p>\n
So what happens when we bring a number of people or businesses together, along with our unique talents, gifts, knowledge, and experiences, and start a process of collaboration? They can put\u00a0A Dent\u2122 in the universe.<\/strong><\/p>\n
I want to do that. I want to help you do that.\u00a0Collaboration isn\u2019t about giving up your individuality. It is<\/em> about realizing your potential. It is<\/em><\/strong> about bringing your many gifts to the table and sharing them in pursuit of a common goal. It is<\/em> about bringing your ideas, your passion, your mind, heart, and soul to the table.<\/p>\n
Collaboration isn\u2019t about being best friends, or even necessarily liking everyone you\u2019re working with. It is<\/em> about putting any and all baggage aside, bringing your best self to the table, and focusing on the common goal.<\/p>\n
The Takeaway#<\/a><\/h3>\n