Use the Unicorn Strategy

The granddaddy of all mistakes is competing to be the best, going down the same path as everybody else and thinking that somehow you can achieve better results. This is a hard race to win.
Michael Porter, quoted in Understanding Michael Porter, by Joan Magretta

Don’t try to be the best!

What? I thought I was supposed to be the best I could be.

I thought there were only two places: first and tied for last.

— — —

That may be true in the NFL and the NBA.

But life does not work like professional sports.

Even in the pros, there are many winners and many losers.

The league championship is not the only game they are playing.

Many businesses claim to be the best, and that sounds like a good strategy.

However, the only business strategy worse than trying to be the best is trying to be the cheapest.

That becomes a race to the bottom.

Eventually, everyone in that race goes broke.

Racing to be the best would seem to bring success.

But all it brings is competitors.

And the better the business gets, the harder it gets to get better.