Excuse Me But I Should Win and You Should Lose

This post is actually a comment I left for someone on Facebook. Their response was  to myself and a few other people that felt that a win/win was a must. If someone had to lose in order for us to succeed then that just wasn’t acceptable. Below is a quote from his response:

My response is simply this:

Business is competition but it can’t be compared to sports like it once was where there are two sides and one is a loser. Sure there are companies looking to gain market share, even someone like Christian (from Next Level Blogger who’s Facebook profile this happened on, but wasn’t him who said it) wants a huge market share. However does that mean someone else has to lose customers? Nope, there are plenty to go around. Why?

In today’s ecommerce/social media climate and along with the unlimited access that the little guy has for little or no cost except for time, I believe there can be lots of people that “win.” I think we should look at the context of what win/win means in today’s economy. It’s changing.

Unlike in the ’90’s where everyone tried to hoard their customers, today, online businesses (and offline) realize they are going to have to share customers. Their customers are going to buy multiple products or services from multiple competitors anyway. Many of those so called competitors today just so happen to be joint venture partners. (If they’re smart)

Broken Boundaries

Your, “only one person wins and everyone else loses” doesn’t apply to the web today and it’s business relationships. Boundaries online for the time being are gone. Barrier to entry is little or zero cost for the little guy. Developing relationships, creating joint ventures and everyone accessing the same customer is the win/win and it’s happening whether we like it or not. I see it in online joint ventures in all kinds of markets and niches, everyday.

We don’t live int he 90’s anymore thank god. The perspective of business and how we create & handle customer relationships has evolved and is continuing to evolve at an extremely rapid pace.

I’m all for capitalism myself and I do encourage the “true, uncontrolled/ ungoverned, free commerce” you speak of. (Hence Atlas Shrugged is my favorite book of all time) however your perspective seems to be based on the Mega Corporations of yesterday who today are finding themselves collapsing under their own weight and are struggling to rush into this thing called Social Media because they otherwise feel they are trying to heard cats with their customers.

Yesterday Is Not Today

Corporations of yesterday have to walk out and meet the customer of today. It’s going to be interesting because the customers attention has never been harder to catch, and their choices have never been so plentiful. Yes that means you have to be that much more remarkable as Seth Godin says. I think you’re partnerships and your relationships with those partners has to be just as remarkable.

I’m not saying he’s dead wrong for his perspective, I’m just saying that it’s creative thinking and evolved thought around business that is happening right now as we speak. If you keep thinking like you did you’ll keep getting what you got.

“In the 90’s, when I was growing up, everyone received a trophy or a medal even if their team lost. Our parents, the coaches, wanted everyone to be a winner! The truth is that there can only be one winner, one super bowl ring, and one number one period. Life is not the Special Olympics. Everyone is not a winner. This idea is quite silly and gives people false hope.”

This context I gave above is only to business, not sports. I don’t think any of us are naive enough to think that two sports teams playing each other should both “win” but in today’s economy there are going to be lots of winners, the ones that realize business is changing, flow with it and work together. Hmm sounds a lot like a sports team though, doesn’t it?

Side Note: I’ve since chatted with this guy and he’s a completely good guy. He just has a different mindset and perspective. 🙂