First, let's talk about an old-fashioned thing that can't be old-fashioned, and you can't let your child lose at the starting line.
Many people around me do not think so, and adopt a free-range state for the sake of children's happy childhood. In fact, I was like this for a while, but my wife insisted on a chicken blood childhood, and I was also instigated.
But this question has been hiding in the depths of my brain, and I vaguely feel that a happy childhood is not very good, why chicken blood childhood. As for this why, and whether there is more [why] after [why], people are lazy, and after a long time, they will throw it aside and not think about it.
Revisiting the concept of fair competition came to mind when reviewing one's own early investment projects.
Before and after a trend is obvious, there will be many entrepreneurs scrambling to join in and start a life-and-death competition. Speaking of this [you die and live], this is indeed too common in the world of early entrepreneurship, especially the digitization of information, which exacerbates the differentiation of competition, and the winners (two or three heads) eat all, and everyone is commonplace.
When I was reviewing, I thought of this question, in this competition between you and me, what is [fair competition]?
There is a comparison to make progress, first to show my understanding before the review.
Before re-ordering
Competition must be fair, unfair competition is something I despise and is not sustainable.
For example, I can't cheat on an exam, otherwise it's unfair; I won't take an exam where I can cheat.
Another example: participate in 100 meters, you certainly can't run.
Another example: when an individual participates in a marathon, even if he is not a professional athlete, he cannot use certain drugs to improve his performance (once I was a running man, now I am a running scum).
Before I deeply reflected on the concept of fair play, my knowledge was limited to this.
After review
In another world under the same world (the business world), there has never been any absolute fair competition in this world, and the essence of competition is to crush (competitors) with their own advantages.
Competition between enterprises has never been fair, and if you want to win, you must try to become the dominant party in unfair competition.
Unfair competition that uses its own advantages to crush the disadvantages of its opponents is the magic weapon for the country, the nation, and the enterprise to win. Writing this, I instantly remembered the Opium War, the British and French allied ships and cannons broke through the gates of the Qing Dynasty, and there were also flashes of images left by some movies.....
It's over, it's over! When my perception was elevated to the point that there was never any absolute fair competition in this world, the cornerstone of my life's faith was sucked out of a large chunk. The next thought jumped to: What do we ordinary people do?
I thought about it for a long time and didn't have an answer, until I read Wang Lijie's "Investment Outliers". He mentioned that the only positive response of startups to unfair competition is to "start first, to compete for advantages".
To be more specific: to be the first to fight, to compete for the advantage (but not to guarantee that the advantage will be obtained), but not first, then there is no advantage at all under unfair competition.
In the business competition, the first-mover (can compete) advantages will be transformed into other advantages (talent advantages, institutional advantages, cultural advantages, technical advantages, scale advantages, price advantages, efficiency advantages, license advantages, brand advantages), these advantages will become the moat of the pioneer enterprises.
The book gives examples: Missing 1998-1999, as an investor, I missed an era of Internet investment. Bat, the three major portals, Shanda JD Ctrip Dangdang were all founded in that era.
In an instant, I understood - don't let the child lose at the starting line, the logic behind this sentence: For ordinary children, the first-mover (can grab) advantage is the only competitive advantage, and the small advantage that is competed for will be converted into other advantages.
Reviewing their own growth, several major turns, in essence, are "first-mover" to grab the "advantage", and then these "advantages" bring more [advantages]. However, I didn't know it yet, thinking that it was the result of my own hard work and diligence (of course, hard work is also a necessary condition, but there is no causal relationship).
(Writing here, I remembered the story of the famous entrepreneur who made the elevator) There are joys and sorrows, joys and sorrows...
Therefore, for many friends around me who did not think much of it and still adopted the state of free-range children, I began to actively lobby, but to no avail. I said to them fiercely: Please shake your head, have you heard the sound of the sea?
Still fruitless...
Really, if the world is useful for reasoning, then why should we experience it?