Opportunities can be likened to three golden eggs and yes, we each have our favorite one. As a society, we must work together to solve the communal problems facing the group. In a free market environment, businesses are created to sell products and services needed to solve those issues. By working as a network, we each can thrive individually, corporately, and societally. To do so, requires knowledge, understanding, and control of the relationships between the three societal opportunities.
In everything that we do, we seek opportunities that require us to interact in three possible ways; compete, cooperate, or mutually benefit one another.
Competition can range from cut-throat to friendly.
The spectrum of cooperation can span from an all-in participant to a side-line observer.
The golden ticket is when the opportunity mutually benefits each party; a shared goal.
From birth, we begin to develop our own unique personality. That personality will evolve as we age. It will also drive how we interact with others, our values and beliefs, and how we view, relate, and communicate with others. Our personality will dictate the way we face the opportunities presented to us.
If we develop a highly competitive nature, then every endeavor is viewed as a competition. We will usually have a high self-esteem and be driven by the need to “win”. This egg can be extreme rewarding or very detrimental, depending on the factors of the opportunity and the strength and weaknesses of the person.
For those who enjoy the egg of cooperation, they see every opportunity as a chance to play well together and this works well in some cases. Cooperative opportunities can be very rewarding though it does not mean mutually beneficial. People who gravitate toward this opportunity will not need success to “feel” like they are winning, even when winning is required to pay the bills.
The final egg, the mutual beneficial opportunity is the proverbial, “win, win, win” scenario. Everyone likes this egg for the obvious reason of “divide and conquer” but the competitive personality will not always play well with others. Still, whenever we can come together as a society and all benefit from the effort we should rejoice in the experience.
Three different opportunities to get to the same place. As with ice cream, we can have a favorite while still enjoying the others. At times we will be extremely competitive, another time the opportunity might call for us to be cooperative, and still another might allow for us to bring together partners to share in the mutual benefits of the opportunity. It’s is not one or the other, as much as is it which one is called for in this instance. Maturity makes it easier to choose but knowing and understand the differences is a good first step.
If this is my last post, I want all to know there was only one purpose for all that I have written; to have made a positive difference in the lives of others.
Anthony “Tony” Boquet, the author of “The Bloodline of Wisdom, The Awakening of a Modern Solutionary” and Vice President, Education and Development at The American College of Financial Services