TALKING TECH

I play a game called Cube Runner on the IPhone. It’s a simplistic game involving your little ship which moves left and right as you tilt the phone. You dodge boxes and try to last the longest in order to obtain the best high score possible.

So why do I continue to play this simplistic game? Because, each and every single time I play, I try to beat a previous high score. If my roommate Charles beats my score, then I’ll keep playing until I beat his high score. The process is never ending; we compete to beat each other’s high scores to a point where we lose sight of why we started playing in the first place.

Everyone compares themselves to other people. It’s human nature. We all want to be the best at the game and have the highest score in life. But what does that mean? Everyone has a different definition of a high score. For some, it’s money. Others fame and power. Either way, if all you do is spend your life trying to beat everyone else’s high score, you’ll probably never get there.

A lot of startup companies didn’t get where they are now by trying to beat the high scores of well established corporations. Rather than play the same game, they played another game. They had different business models and different target markets. Look at Ebay. Facebook. How did they manage to topple Amazon and Myspace, the dominant players of the market? They found different opportunities, different strategies, and at the end of it all, it was these differences that let them reach their own high scores.

So don’t waste time comparing and competing. Make your own high score and do everything you can to get there.