Life & Business Lesson #2 Know your Competition

- By Jeanne Doheny (about the author)

This is another of my life's lesson, but it applies so well to business.

Coming from a large family of mostly boys, makes one tough. Sometimes it makes you tough physically, sometimes emotionally, sometimes mentally, sometimes all three. It can also make you quite competitive. Sunday afternoons brought friends and family to our home, and a good, competitive game of softball

often ensued. Games were played in the cow pasture because that was the largest open area we could find. We used whatever bats we had, never wore gloves (they were for sissies), and fashioned bases from boards, piles of rocks, or other markers already strategically placed by nature or beast.

"Sides" were drawn, the taunting started, and the game began. If you weren't a "player", you were a fan (so to speak). This was family - this was for bragging rights - at least for a week. This was for fun???

The competition could be fierce. There was much arguing and some negotiating, spiced with a little anger. We all liked to play, but we all liked to win, too. Not everyone wins - not in family softball games, not in business, and not in life.

I think I was the only "girl" who was playing and brothers showed no mercy. If you couldn't "hold your own", you were not needed (or wanted). Ruthless! I could hold my own.

And the game played on. I was up to bat and I'd like to say that the game was on the line, but that would be a stretch. I don't even remember the score. I do know I hit a line drive and headed for first base (an old board). Cheers rose from the fans! This was going to be good! I rounded first and headed for second. As I
rounded second... OH NO! My world fell apart. I slipped. Darned cow pasture. Darned second base. It was way too fresh. What was the equipment manager thinking? Who was the equipment manager, anyway?

I lay on the ground, trying to get my bearings, trying to figure out what hurt and where it hurt. In football, this would be an injury time out. In our family, it was more like a delay of game and deserving of some sort of penalty. The teams - not the competition and not my own teammates - were not patient.

They waited for me to make my move and when that didn't happen, a couple of them headed in my direction. I lay in a fetal position, partially covering second base and simultaneously being covered by second base. They were not amused. They stood over me, looking down with distain. "Are you going to play, or not?" one of them asked. I looked up, my eyes squinting. The sun was shining brightly and created a halo effect around their heads. Halos! I knew those were not halos; God could not be that cruel.

"If you're not going to play, they yelled impatiently, get off the field". All right! A little brotherly love. I uttered not a word and slowly got to my feet. I was angry and an angry tear slipped out of the corner of my eye. But, I couldn't let them see that. In defiance, I stomped my foot... splattering more of what was left of the too fresh second base all over my shoes. This drew gales of laughter.

Good competition makes you strong; unfair competition/competitors can make you do stupid things. That was stupid! I trudged to the house, feeling defeated, my left arm hurting... a lot. I held it carefully; it was broken. I'm not sure the competition or even my teammates inquired, or much less cared about the injury. The game went on. Competition in life, in family and in business is like that... the "game" goes on.

Oh yeah! The lessons may be didn't "stick" as well as they should have, but I did learn some things. I'd like to think I'm a little smarter now. A little competition, a little family competition is good for the mind and the soul. Even though I chose
		not to apply what I learned, I did learn it is best not to play games with family, I learned how ruthless the competition can be, I learned that you should capitalize on the weaknesses and
vulnerability of your competition, and most of all, I learned not to play softball in a cow pasture with a too fresh second base. Yes, I am smarter now!