Escape Competition by Being You
Competing in work and in life is fighting for scraps. All the meat is gone and people fight over the bones. It’s tempting to join that struggle for scraps cause you see that’s what most people are doing. You think that you should be doing it also. But the smart people have long figured out that there’s rich natural sources of food, money, discovery, storytelling somewhere else and you’re not going to find it if you participate in the competition where everyone, people, businesses are fighting for the same resource, customer, location etc.
Same with academics if students are studying the same major whatever is the popular field of study, you’re not going to stand out.
There were two videos that I saw seperately at two different times that compliment each other.
One clip is from the Joe Rogan podcast where the guest Duncan Trussel talks about this concept of sink into what you are. Meaning accept who you were meant to be. Accept what you are interested in and don’t let your family, your peers or the culture to tell you what you should be interested in. That’s almost like competition, if everyone is conforming into the same interests, no one is going to stand out. Not stand out in terms of show off, but stand out in showing your true personality on your face, on the clothes that you wear, what you take photos of.
The second video is from Naval’s podcast. His idea is that you are able to escape the endless cycle of competition by just being you. If you do what you are genuinely interested in, no one is able to copy your ideas, your habits, your products. When you do something that you are totally immersed in, it feels like you are playing. The people who attempt to copy you will struggle, trying to analyze how you did X, Y and Z while you are on to your next project.
That’s kind of why I don’t have too many photography friends and don’t want to make photography friends. People try and waste your time how you were able to get this and that effect, how you get that type of composition. I don’t have time to talk about this stuff. I’m already on the ball looking for my next photograph.
