I’m going to tell you something you’re not going to hear too often that can help you beat.

You need to know your competition’s strengths and weaknesses as well or better than your own.

This lesson can be applied throughout your life. Any time you have competition in life, you need to know their strengths and weaknesses, so you can know how to improve your own venture to beat them out. 

Sun Tzu, the famous ancient philosopher says,  "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained, you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy, nor yourself, you will lose in every battle."

Sun Tzu says in his book “The Art of War” that there are three levels that you can be at when it comes to knowing your competition.

The lowest level you can at is level three. That basically means that you don’t know your competition, and even worse, you don’t understand your own strengths and weaknesses. If you only have a level three understanding, it's almost guaranteed to put you out of business.

People who are at level two are people that know what they are good at, but they forget about outside forces. Mike Tyson made almost half a billion dollars from boxing, and within a few years, he lost it all. See, even though Mike Tyson knew how to box and knew he was the best boxer in the world, other forces were at work in the economy and in the boxing world, but he didn’t pay attention to that. A majority of people are at the second level. About 70% of people know their own strengths, but don’t study how others have accomplished their goals. 

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That also means noticing trends. You need to have an awareness of new trends to prevent from losing it all, just like Mike Tyson.

Blockbuster didn't notice the trend of online video and now they're out of business and their biggest enemy, Netflix has taken over.

If they had noticed the trend beforehand, they would have had a much better of a chance of surviving. But no, they didn't listen to Sun Tzu in the Art of War.

1. That's why it's part of my job to let you know about new trends that you can benefit from. I just recorded a webinar I did recently on new trends that you will want to know about

You should know your competitors shoe size. You should know where they live. You should know their story, you should know how much money they have in the bank account. 

You gotta know where they advertise, who their key employees are, what struggles they've overcome. 

You need to know everything you can about your competition

I always take three to six months to just do my competitive research. Once you know you’re competition as good or better than your own strengths and weaknesses, then your ar the highest level and have a higher likelihood of success. 

One of the greatest businessmen of all time, Sam Walton, followed this. He said knowing the competition was the biggest key to his success. Sam Walton's wife, said back in 1945 when they started their first little store, before he started Walmart, that he spent more time across the street in the competitor's store than in his own. He understood that being the first to market isn’t always a good thing. You can learn so much from the successes and failures of your competitors.

Now, once you’re a first level thinker and you know yourself and your competition, you gotta start looking at the people around you. Believe it or not, someone you trust or think is your friend will try to take advantage of you at some point. 

Dane Cook's brother stole $10 million dollars from him. The guy’s in jail now, but his own brother stole from him. You gotta be able to read people so you know who to keep an eye on.

You must look within your organization, too. Within the people you trust the most, within your employees, your advisors. What if a key employee leaves? What if all your employees leave and start a business to compete with you? If you wanna be a successful entrepreneur, you have to plan for when things go wrong, even if everything seems fine at the moment.  Laozi, the ancient Daoist philosopher says "Do what is difficult when it is easy.

Remember, you have to know your competition’s strengths and weaknesses as well as your own. Be realistic with yourself about your strengths too. Examine yourself and ask “Is my business built on my strengths, or things I want to be my strengths?” 

Don't be opportunistically jumping into the next thing that you think you're going to make a lot of money in. Sorry, it just doesn't work that way. That's the lottery ticket mentality.  find that thing that is your strength. It can be big or small, maybe it's you can make people laugh, maybe it's how you connect emotionally with people. Maybe it's that you're good with numbers, or you’re a good artist. 

It doesn’t matter what your strengths are, you just need to know them. 

Build your life around your strengths. You have to be willing to tweak, modify, and change, no matter how painful that might be, into your area of strengths. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to improve your weak spots, but don’t build a business off of them.

At the same time, keep your eye the competition. There’s so many resources today to do competitive research thanks to the internet. You can learn a lot from your competitors.

Stay Strong,

Tai