Competition is the bread and butter for a creative individual in a creative industry. That’s you! You're a creative in an industry driven by fresh ideas, innovation and the desire to push boundaries. You're a creator, and creators must remain competitive in order to try (and, often, fail at) new things. You're probably thinking about the ways that society negatively stigmatizes competition and competitive people. We're trained to view it as a weakness instead of seeing it for what it truly is, a strength. One that keeps the world interesting and moves us forward into uncharted territories. Community over competition seems to be a common ideal in the wedding industry and it’s definitely a valuable one that should be cultivated. Keeping a competitive edge, however, is healthy and good for the industry and for you. Let’s redefine it for all that it has to offer and talk about what competition can do to keep your creative energy high and your business at its best.
Value
It’s important to make the distinction in your intention as a competitive business person. You can, actually, compete within the wedding community without putting others down or working directly against another business in your specific field. Competition, at its core, is about focusing on and developing your own work and talents to be the very best you can be. Striving to be the best in your business and valuing competition will drive you to push your creative boundaries and find smarter ways to do business. Simply put, creativity exists because of competition. As highlighted by Elite Daily in “Why Competitive People are Better in Life, Business, and Love,” we have competitive people to thank for every new advancement and extraordinary human creation. Every role model that is changing the game in their industry is channeling competition as their source for novel ideas. If there was no competition, there would be no creativity.
Characteristics
What is it about competitive people that makes them excel? The most striking characteristic is tenacity. They never give up. Never giving up inherently spurs creativity. In order to keep advancing, pros have to come up with creative approaches improve, both in deliverable and in process. Their optimism, even in their failures, generates perseverance. They don’t take no for an answer and don’t allow negativity to get them down. They are also visionaries that can visualize and imagine the taste of the fruit that their work will reap no matter the challenges that come their way. Take some time to learn about competitiveness as a strength and how you can use it to its full capacity to uncover all of your potential.
Force
Raise and set the bar for yourself and every professional in this industry by having high expectations for yourself and your business. Every goal should incorporate performing at your top level. The nice thing about competition is that goal setting won’t seem like a difficult task since it will feel like a natural part of the creative process. They say comparison is the thief of joy, but in this case, it can be used as a method to inform you about what you’re doing, what other professionals in the industry are doing, and what you can do differently when setting your goals. You’ll be happy to see how many goals you can accomplish when competition is motivating you.
Opportunities and Improvement
No settling! Don’t become complacent or allow yourself to get stuck. A competitive mindset won’t allow you to live in this state, it instead fuels unimaginable growth. That’s the thing about competitive people, they are never satisfied with the minimum. Once they set a goal and achieve it they continue to search for new opportunities to improve and expand their brand. They push the boundaries set on them and are always on their toes, ready for the next big thing that they’ll accomplish. We live in a time that has a lot of talk about “living your best life.” We all want to live our best lives but in order to live the life you want and reach your goals you have to put in the work. It doesn’t happen magically or overnight. It takes continual effort and focus to feed your creativity.
Learning and Innovation
At the end of the day, business is business and the most innovative and educated professional will be the most successful and happy with their product and performance. A creativity study conducted by IBM, found that the most important leadership quality and assurance of success is creativity. So how can a creative entrepreneur maintain a creative edge? By getting educated in all aspects of the industry. You must understand the market in order to improve the output. Once you have the knowledge necessary, creativity can help you be on the front line. You don’t want to follow along with the trends that every other wedding professional is doing, that won’t allow you to stand out. You must think outside of the typical formula to establish something no one has done before. Clients will notice your mission to be innovative and be drawn to the fresh services you have to offer.
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