Dec 11, 2020

Don't fear competition

Since graduating college, I’ve had two ideas for startups that I’ve worked on. I failed to get the first one off the ground (so far) but the second one seems promising and tangible. In both cases, I have always eventually stumbled upon other people working on the same thing. And every time I see another competitor in the same space as me, my heart sinks and I start to feel intense FOMO. However, this fear is irrational.

When this happens, it should validate your idea to you. Because if other people also recognized the same need to address, then at least you might be onto something. It’s exciting to feel like you have a new, revolutionary idea that’s going to change the market. But that’s not how ideas work. Ideas are easy to be had and are had by many before they come to fruition. The execution is what matters and is incredibly difficult.

Instead of fearing competition, you should expect to compete. If competitors didn’t exist before, they will after you have any small amount of success. You don’t get to hold onto your idea. Good ideas spread. The only thing that you might get is a head start. If you want to win, you will have to keep pushing the envelope. Competition is inevitable—get comfortable with it.