I’m well-known for writing LONG posts. This is one more.

It’s about being competitive - and being wise.

It’s about being successful - and being smart.

It’s about winning - and losing.

In short, it’s something you may want to read - and think about.

What brought this on?

Two posts on the TIMIC forum. Both related to events in
‘real life’ that interfered with the work 2 members do online.

I shared my perspective about it - and every time I do that,
someone or the other thinks I’m not ‘tough’ enough or don’t
take my online work seriously enough, or that it’s ‘easy
for me to say that because…’

That’s why this post is titled, “I am HYPER-competitive…”

Because I am. VERY. It takes that to succeed in fields
like heart surgery and Internet marketing.

In India, in my home state, around 1.2 MILLION students
graduate high-school every year. With entrepreneurial
opportunities very limited 20 years ago, it was every
parent’s dream to see their child safely qualified as a
professional - mainly a doctor or engineer.

And there were just over 1,000 seats in medical colleges
- for which 1.2 million students aspired. Figure out the
odds on that.

I decided to be one of the 1,000 - and ranked #6 in the
state.

It only got harder and more competitive as I won my way
through post-graduate courses in surgery and then cardiac
surgery.

And nowhere was I willing to settle for less than top
position. I simply have to WIN.

This attitude translated into the work I do online. And
it’s why I won’t retreat from this hostile, terribly
competitive area of Internet marketing - I thrive on the
challenge and competition, enjoy the thrill of pitting
myself against the best… and WINNING.

So fighting against odds, beating them, and struggling
through to success is not something foreign or strange
to me.

Yet, long ago, I decided to limit the PRICE I would pay
for any success.

Decades back, what drove me was the thought of ‘victory
at any cost’. I literally was ready to do ANYTHING it
took to win.

Not any longer. A Spanish proverb that remains fresh in
my mind is this one:

“Take what you want, and pay for it”, says God

It’s simple. Yet deep. You pay a price - for everything.

You don’t always get to decide what that price will be.

But YOU decide whether or not to pay it.

Today, if I’m struggling with a script installation, or to
find the right words to go on a sales letter or special
report, and my little girl interrupts with:

“Care for an ice cream?”

I know it’s smart to stop what I’m doing and take a short
walk or drive to grab a couple of cones - and in the process
enjoy what often turns out to be the BEST half hour of the
day, or even week!

When I look at the toll that mindless, obsessively driven
ambition takes on some colleagues and friends, who are caught
up in a spiral of continuously escalating stress and over-work,
I’m convinced the choice I made was the right one.

My 44-year old friend is a multi-millionaire with a thriving
business. He leads a healthy, disciplined life. But he’s
too busy to spend time relaxing, or with family. Faces a lot
of stress at work.

He recently had to undergo heart surgery. And he’s changed -
as a person. Has more time for his son, who is 7. Looks more
relaxed, happy.

He’s lucky. Because he got a second chance.

He’s smart. Because he grabbed it.

Not everyone is so lucky.

My colleague and member of our surgical team, was a month
younger than I. We had similar ambitions and goals. One
night, last year, I got a terrible phone call from his wife.
He had passed away in his sleep, from a massive heart attack.

His daughter is 5. His son is barely 2. They won’t know
what a nice guy their father was.

What ’success’ is worth paying such a steep price for?

I am still HYPER-competitive.

I still want to win.

But I will not pay ‘ANY’ price to do so.

The stakes are high in the ‘game’ I play. And I know the
rules, play the game well. Yet, I know my limits and my
limitations. Will not press beyond them, just for the joy
of winning.

And along the way, I will make it a point to stop and smell
the roses.

Because it is the journey, just as much as the destination,
that defines the meaningfulness of any success.