Greetings!
No matter how people preach against competition and narrow it to the negative sides of it—such as deep envy and the rest—competition is what makes people better when handled well. Sometimes, we allow envy to cloud our eyes and don’t notice when it has taken over something that’s supposed to be a mere competition meant to push someone to a better height.
Currently, I have two people close to me and within my living environment who are practically in competition, but envy has crawled in, and to them, there’s nothing wrong with it. One of them is a guy in our compound who runs a POS business whenever he’s free and also at night because our area is very busy during nighttime. Meanwhile, the other person is a lady who doesn’t live with us in the compound but comes around at night to a spot where she also does her POS business. The lady has been doing that for a very long time, while the guy recently started because he realized he doesn’t go anywhere at night and could use the opportunity to make some money since he lives in the compound.
It’s supposed to be easy between them since the people who patronize them are not regulars—they’re usually random people that come around at night. So, there’s nothing like “This guy or lady is stealing my customers.”
But hey, envy joined in almost immediately. I started to see and hear one bad-mouthing the other to people in the street. The silliest of them all was when I heard the guy, whom I regarded as mature and' masculine', tell me that while he was at the market one day, a random person tapped him on the back and told him to tread carefully at his house. Guys, you needed to see how this guy added all the ingredients of superstition while narrating the event. In a nutshell, the words from the random guy at the market became a prophecy, warning him to tread carefully in the compound because the lady he’s competing with is supposedly after his life.
That’s the highest level of superstition I’ve heard this year. Some people are just too quick to draw conclusions!
Well, the two of them are still combating emotionally and maybe spiritually too. They greet each other, but we know those greetings are just for show.
Competition in anything is good, but we shouldn’t allow envy to take over the competitive ground because it has the ability to blindfold the eyes and lead to unpleasing actions.
At my workspace, someone opened a shop in the neighboring building doing the same kind of business as I do. The distance isn’t far—just a pole distance. When I saw it, my heart got scared because that meant direct competition between me and the guy. And the guy would surely win if everything were to be measured by standard. His shop is very good and modernized, while mine is just a small space.
It was due to this competition that I decided to beautify my workspace to the capacity of the funds I had. Before then, I had been procrastinating doing some renovations in the space. But when the guy appeared from nowhere, I didn’t even know when I pulled together funds to carry out some improvements. 🤣 This is what competition can do!
Aside from this, I have never seen any reason to start hating the guy because he opened a shop very close to mine and is doing the same kind of business. Whenever I see some of my customers go to him, I don’t fret either, because those customers are usually the ones I had already gotten tired of. Lol
Thanks for reading.
This is my entry to Week 171, Edition 01 of the Weekly Featured contest in Hive Learners Community
Image source: My image
