Getting into a competition with people to improve yourself doesn't seem like a bad thing to do and it's a fair game when you look at it from the perspective that you can easily track your progress when you have a physical competitor. It has worked for not just people but also organizations who actually stick to their clear goals and objectives of achieving growth.
From my experience, I have discovered that people easily deviate from keeping their competition healthy and that has made me believe that crossing the line between a healthy and toxic competition is very easy. It happens a lot and unfortunately, people don't see themselves crossing that line. It usually starts with the aim of growing but it ends up becoming a toxic competition.
People start developing unhealthy habits while competing and it can get so bad quickly. A typical example had to do with a colleague of mine at my previous place of work who decided to compete with one of the best-selling foot soldiers in the Ketu axis.
It all started well and everyone saw the effort he was putting into sales. He got bonuses for the rapid increase in sales surpassing the best salespersons in those routes but it wasn't long before issues started.
I went for a survey in that area and one of my distributors accused the company of crashing the market without informing her. I told her, it's not true, but she showed me proof. Truly, someone has been selling to people, taking 50 naira off every carton they purchase.
50 naira might look like nothing, but it's a big win for market women who buy hundreds of cartons. I reported the issue and the investigation began in that area, but the culprit was just too smart. He didn't have physical contact with his buyers and has been using a strange face to do his dirty job, but not for long. We caught her and she led us to the guy who we have been praising for improving massively.
It turned out that he uses the heavy incentives he receives to cover the differences. We were all disappointed and, unfortunately for me, he was dismissed.
He had a good intention at first, but he couldn't keep up with the pressure and, while trying to stay in control, he switched sides to a toxic competition. It's the same case for many people involved in a toxic competition today; the need to stay relevant or remain in control forces them to go toxic.
If you look at different atrocities happening around the world today involving the youth, it all started with competition. I want to build a house, own a car at this age because someone else did the same and, when their efforts aren't paying as expected, they decide to do dirty things just to keep up.
Despite the struggles with keeping competitions healthy, I still wouldn't write off people using competition as a drive or source of inspiration to grow in life and, like I mentioned earlier, nothing beats a physical competitor, someone who is also trying to still improve; so it's not like you are competing with a stagnant figure.
But instead of competing with people and deviating from your initial goals in the long run, you can just compete with yourself. It's even better because it gives you the privilege to move at your pace, zero pressure, and all you need to do is work on becoming the better version of yourself.
I know there are people who are very disciplined to stay on track without corrupting their competitive spirit; people like that are good to go but must be very careful because people don’t see themselves crossing the line to a toxic competition.
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