Look to the future!

During Chriskindlmarkt each year I tend to get into deep and meaningful conversations with photographer Paul Grecian. They range the gamut and this year he told me about a book he thought I should read: Marketing-A Love Story.

Now the book itself is really about telling your story, using your story to differentiate yourself from everyone else, and using your story to add perceived value to your work. And most likely I will chat on and on about these things at a later date. But there was something hidden in there, amongst the marketing tools. There was a few simple sentences about competition. It was something I highlighted and thought deeply about. It was something that seemed to be resonating in my life. I was reading Facebook status' regarding this idea, I was seeing references in other books I was reading that had nothing to do with business or marketing. It was like karma was yelling at me to pay attention, learn something, and apply it to my life.

So what were these few sentences? I will quote them here (Sorry, I don't have the page numbers handy):


It’s our competitor’s job to compete and yet we’re often surprised when they do. We complain when ideas are stolen or replicated. We spend at least as much time looking over our shoulder at the competition as we do on practicing our steps in readiness and performance. The most dangerous thing about your competition is your obsession with them. The bigger concern for any business now is not the competition; its obscurity.
  
Soapmaking (like all crafts) come and go in popularity. After 15 years I have seen many competitors come and go, and I have seen some stay around. I personally don't go to other artisans web sites or booths (unless we happen to be friends) because I like to know that my ideas have come about organically. I have seen something that inspires me, or a customer has made a suggestion, or I read an article about an ingredient I want to explore.

So how do I respond when I think I have been stolen from? I boil inside. It drives me crazy when I think my organic ideas have been taken. But have they? I don't know for sure. I do know that the transparency I offer to my customers means it is easy for competitors to replicate my products. Is it replication or did they make it better, or at least their own? I don't know for sure. 

But instead of using time trying to prove that it is replication, and energy being upset about the whole thing, we just need to spend that time and energy looking for the next thing that inspires us. Stop looking back, look forward. Because our products and ideas can be stolen, but not our passion, our relentless drive to be better, our stories. Our obsession with competition keeps us in the now, on the defense, not in the future, on the offense. That is how in 15 more years I will be here, writing this blog every week. Will you?