Competition is healthy.
Peter Thiel condemned competition (source), saying it isn’t necessary if you’re playing a positive sum game. While that’s true, note that he’s incentivized to encourage and evangelize startups. Before Paypal, he was playing a zero-sum game himself.
When people condemn competition, they typically reduce it to an egotistical pursuit - the desire to prove one’s superiority over their opponent(s). But the desire to win can be pure. Egoless.
When your goal is nothing more but the pursuit of excellence, your competition helps you bring your best game. From the Inner Game of Tennis:
“true competition is identical with true cooperation. Each player tries his hardest to defeat the other, but in this use of competition it isn’t the other person we are defeating; it is simply a matter of overcoming the obstacles he presents. In true competition no person is defeated. Both players benefit by their efforts to overcome the obstacles presented by the other. Like two bulls butting their heads against one another, both grow stronger and each participates in the development of the other.”
On guilt:
“If I assume that I am making myself more worthy of respect by winning, then I must believe, consciously or unconsciously, that by defeating someone, I am making him less worthy of respect. I can’t go up without pushing someone else down. This belief involves us in a needless sense of guilt. You don’t have to become a killer to be a winner; you merely have to realize that killing is not the name of the game. ”
Reminders
Do not use competition as validation that what you are pursuing is worthwhile. From how to do great work:
Competition can be an effective motivator, but don’t let it choose the problem for you; don’t let yourself get drawn into chasing something just because others are. In fact, don’t let competitors make you do anything much more specific than work harder.
Compete against yourself. At best, you can be 2nd best at being someone else. There is a you-shaped hole in the world that no one is able to fill except you.
If you cannot be first in a category, create a new category. Find your Pareto Frontier.