Before we get started on talking about competition, we celebrate Hiten’s birthday!  If you want to send him birthday wishes and see some pictures from the day, please join our Facebook group.

Today we are talking about how we think about our competition.  Steli says he use to not care about his competition and played to his strengths, ideas and customers, but people are starting to get a lot more competitive in taking somebody else’s ideas and using them as their own.  Hiten says there are probably customers coming to you who are best for you and you don’t want to lose them.  It’s your job to explain to your customers how you are best for them.

We then talk about how to publicly respond to somebody who becomes your competition.  Hiten’s opinion is that it’s best to welcome the competitor into the space and use that as an opportunity to differentiate between you and the competition.  

We discuss our thoughts on the best approach to take when your competition does something that’s truly awesome.  Do you copy them?  Hiten believes that’s the time to ask yourself why you didn’t think of it first and determine why you would want to copy it.  Steli thinks it’s a good time to ask yourself if what the competition is doing is aligned with your strength.  He feels it’s important to recognize your strengths and capabilities.

Today’s Tips:

Steli:  Only play the game you think you can win.  Never just play to play.

Hiten:  Don’t let your competition drive you crazy.  Don’t let the competitors taint your world and and your own unique value that you can bring to it.  

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