8 Principles To Become #1 In A Crowded Field Of Competitors
“Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base.” — General George S. Patton
I realized I needed to do everything I could to become better than the leader in my field.
And of course, the doubts set in.
“But they’re #1 in the field already”.
“They have all the market share”.
“They write so well and make millions already.”
“Why would others go to me over them”?
My task was (and still is) daunting, but I needed to know the way.
“But they’re a PHD”.
“Their work is so much better than mine”.
All thoughts I had to overcome on the road to winning in my field — and though I’m not there externally, I am there internally and act as such.
That is the way to become a leader of your field — and this piece is going to show you my discovery and journey toward gaining on my market leader — so you can too.
It can be hard to compete with the rest of your field, and daunting to see the best performing in it — especially if you’re starting at the bottom.
Where do you measure up?
How do you go after #1?
There are a lot of angles to consider when looking at a field of competitors — and it begins with you and your mindset which is the most important part.
Planning to be best, believing it’s possible — and taking action to join the 20% of a market’s competitors who own 80% of the market share is the goal.
If you notice the end of the exponential growth curve below — the final 20% of the time gives you 80% of the growth.
This is the golden rule you need to focus on. The road to the top 20% is long but it depends on you that determines how fast you want to travel on it.
If you want to accelerate at 100mph, schedule a coaching call with me.
This is the biggest hole in most people’s personal development and external goals they set — whether it’s with work, wealth, happiness or relationships — it’s because of themselves.
You don’t take #1 on directly — you chip away at them daily — focusing on winning with inches that accumulate over time.
In the early days especially, it’s rates of growth and improvement, not overall results that you compare to the competitor.
If they’re growing at 2% a day at one metric like Facebook or followers, you need to be at 3%.
Eventually, with the right planning and work, you’ll create a position, a “blue ocean” that leads a segment of buyers and becomes a leading position in an overall market.
Whether it ends up actually being #1, 2 or 3 is really irrelevant (but that’s for another more technical post). So long as you have an established position in the top 20% of a market niche that owns 80% of that market, you’re considered a leader in your field.
Here are principles that if practiced, will empower you for journey to the top of your field.
1. Race Yourself And Set The Tone (That’s Faster Than Everyone Else)
You have competition every day because you set such high standards for yourself that you have to go out every day and live up to that.” — Michael Jordan
This starts by following your own metrics relentlessly and racing yourself to improve them.
Monitoring them, measuring them and being held accountable to goals and outcomes. If you’re really serious, report them to someone — preferably someone you pay to keep you accountable.
If you want me to do this for you as your coach, jump on my calendar for a strategy call here.
The most important piece is this — how focused you are on your goals, and how enthusiastic you are with your craft. Together — they’re a powerful force.
You’re driven by a growth mindset that’s in a race with itself to improve. The finish line never officially comes around, but you’ll know when you’ve arrived, because you’re a master of your field, and never worry about anything like money or “success” again — because, well, you know what “success” is and are successful.
You’re just working with the abundance that comes with voracious enthusiasm — so you never work a day in your life again.
This creates urgency around your activity and puts a focus and emphasis your own growth and development.
Set a new tone for your market (in your mind).
They’re keeping up with you, you’re not keeping up with them (though you’ll do plenty of reconnaissance on them).
Create your plan of activity from here.
If you want me to help you with your activity plan, jump on my calendar here to discover where you’re missing and how you can reset your goals with me as your coach.
2. Don’t Sell To Prospects — Push Boundaries To Fragment And Attract The Right Prospects
“The lion doesn’t go after the whole herd all at once, he waits until he sees the right one separating from the herd — then he commits to the one kill.” — Sam Ovens
Do what doesn’t feel safe and what others won’t say — the 3 out of 100 people who believe and respect it are who you’re looking for.
Most importantly, they’re the one’s willing to follow and buy from you now.
Trying not to displease or offend will lead to a less than ideal prospect — and talking to the right prospects is what you want.
It’s the three who love what you say, you want to talk to, not ten who just like it.
To be a change agent, don’t be afraid to go against the grain — you’re like a (good) fanatic, looking for other (good) fanatics of your tribe. Who are in the same way fanatic as you.
Great pioneers are based on a secret or something the masses are unwilling to see, say out loud or acknowledge — until it’s accepted by the majority.
This brings out the prospects.
If you’re feeling scared to publish something, you’re fragmenting your market and finding the right prospects — publish.
If you’re scared of a marketing message, you’re fragmenting your market and finding the right prospects — push it out.
In the early to mid 2000’s, American Apparel made controversial ads — many of which got banned. It turned a lot of people off, but the rebel who loved it got drawn in at a higher and faster rate and the clothes were selling and selling to the right people.
If you’re scared because of a bold pitch to a prospect, you’re fragmenting your market and finding the right prospect (or pushing away the wrong one which is what you want to do anyway).
I am creating a training video for prospects, and am pushing the boundaries to what I believe we humans are capable of with hardcore language and bold promises I can deliver with coaching — this will turn some people off but I know will attract the bold achiever (like myself) who wants to raise the bar. Jump on my calendar here if interested — I promise it will blow your mind.
People respect telling truths other people won’t tell and people respect people who say things that aren’t popular.
Remember, you’re trying to fragment the market and find the bold 3% who are ready to buy right now, who believe what you believe.
Instead of trying to appeal to every customer, try to force the motivated ones to come out of the wood work.
Remember, markets are an outward manifestation of natural selection — the desires and fears of the human mind manifested into monetary value of their needs and desires.
3. Make A Plan To Be #1 In Your Segment
“If you’re not planning to be the best, you’replanning to be mediocre, it’s as simple as that.” — me
If you don’t know how markets work and blindly attacking one — you’re planning for mediocrity.
If you don’t know how growth curves work and trying to grow blindly — you’re planning for mediocrity.
If you don’t know how often prospects convert — you’re planning for disappointment, frustration and mediocrity.
If you don’t know what metrics to measure, you’re planning for mediocrity.
For example, many entrepreneurs/writers etc. (anything that needs growth which is everything), get discouraged quickly when they hit a list of prospects to sell or audience they want to subscribe to their newsletter.
When they don’t see them starting to convert immediately, they think they’re failing and need to do something different.
What they need is to improve, not do something different.
This often leads to quick discouragement and pivoting too quickly. Most don’t realize that only about 3% of a market are ready to buy what you have right now.
And that’s assuming they’re the exact right prospects. There’s obviously variability here but you get the point.
So in writing, it takes 100 of the right people, to read your article, to have 3 (or maybe 5 or 10) subscribe.
What does it take to get 100 people to read? 1500 views or followers perhaps? I’m not sure but you see the point.
You need to reach deep into the market and reach lot’s and lot’s of the right people to convert sales at 3% of the market who are ready to buy right now.
That’s why I decided to begin marketing in my articles.
When I thought it could rub a lot of people the wrong way and lose readership — I realized those are the people I want to push away anyway, as they’re the wrong consumer of my work much less buyer.
I want to attract the bold few who get ecstatic about my marketing message and efforts. If that’s you, and you’re ready to get serious about your goals, hop on my calendar here.
4. Grow Faster Than Everyone Else
“There’s always someone out there working to try to beat you.” Mark Cuban
Grow faster than everyone else is not asking you to have the the growth gods come down and make it rain growth. I
It’s about your approach toward the market and grabbing every inch to grow a little each day — which compounds over time.
Most importantly, it’s the urgency and activity it produces on a daily basis.
With consistent growth and focused tactics with some innovative experimentation, you will have the growth gods do you every once in a while whether it’s the viral articles that get you 80% of your subscribers or marketing channels you end up exploiting.
With persistent voracious work, they always do.
The average growth curve goes something like this:
Extreme pain to get to 10 subscribers/users.
Extreme pain to get to 30 subscribers/users.
Pop to 70–100 subscribers/users.
Extreme pain to get to 150 subscribers/users.
Extreme pain to get to 200 subscribers/users.
Pop to 500 or 1000 subscribers/users.
Extreme pain to get to 1100 subscribers/users.
Extreme pain to get to 1200 subscribers/users.
Pop to get to 3,000 subscribers/users.
Extreme pain to get to 3300 subscribers/users.
Extreme pain to get to 3500 subscribers/users.
Pop to get to 8,000 subscribers/users.
Whatever your goal is, the 80% of your growth, usually comes at the final 20% of your growth curve.
So your job is to set a goal and last until you make it to the 80th% of your growth curve until it pops the final 20% to produce the final biggest 80% of your growth at the end.
So in my case, I’m striving to hit 150,000 subscribers at the end of this year and I’m at about 1,000 and growing fast at anything from 2–5% per day as I’ve ramped publishing to twice a day. This is hard to maintain so we’ll see if it makes sense with everything going on.
I had extreme pain to get to 30 subscribers, then popped to 150.
Extreme pain to get to 200, then a steady growth rate to get to where I am now.
To dig deeper on your own goals, whether it’s writing, business or life, get off on the right foot to accelerate by hiring a coach who’s done what you want to do. It will be the best money you’ve ever spent.
Hop on my calendar if you’re convinced it is.
5. Beat The Leader Of Your Field On Growth Rate, Not Overall Growth
“Having no competition is a bad thing. Competition makes you try to improve yourself all the time.” — Shu Qi
Since I started writing and consulting full time, I check out my hero, mentor and inspiration Benjamin Hardy daily — because he’s #1 in my market.
I’m already lucky to have been coached by Ben — the person who’s work and trajectory I want to emulate. It’s so powerful for your belief and confidence — to see see the theory put into practice successfully.
If you want to emulate what I’m doing beyond following me here, with me as your coach, jump on my calendar to discuss your goals.
Execution is everything, knowing is nothing.
When Hardy’s publishing twice a week, I’m publishing twice a day.
If he’s taking a holiday, I’m working on it. If he’s meditating 20 minutes a day, I’m meditating an hour. If he’s tweeting 4 times a day, I’m tweeting 14 times a day.
My ultimate goal is to have my growth rate be higher than his. If I compare his 170k following to my under 3k, I’ll be toast.
So if he’s growing from his current 170k subscribers to about 175k (at about 2.5%) I want to be going from 2.6k subscribers to 2.7k (about 3%).
I’m following his followers a little each day — so they can follow me back — taking every inch I can grab.
That level of attentiveness will set a high standard that blows by the others and establishes your position — which will help accelerate your growth and put you in the competitive mindset optimized for the habits to win.
I’m not there yet with my numbers, but I’m way ahead in my mind. I’m already at the end goal point, I’m just taking the action that’s getting me to my destination — this is on autopilot.
Find out how to accelerate your own journey by scheduling a coaching call with me to diagnose your performance.
6. Master Your Craft By Working On Yourself More
“I have so much to do I’ll need to pray for 3 hours to get it all done.” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
No matter what I’m doing, whether it was running a company while writing part time, or writing and consulting full time like I am now, the more I assigned value and meaning to my practice, whatever that practice was, I’d put out better work.
That daily moment to moment feedback creates better focus, deeper work and better habits. I meditate more, I read more and I proactively rested more.
This compounds and is continuing to compound each day, and now I’m growing at an exponential rate as I type this article.
Whether it’s your day job, side hustle or creative work, it’s not what you do, it’s how you do it.
Benjamin Hardy isn’t the #1 writer on Medium because he’s the best psychology PHD, there are hundreds of Psychology PHD’s on Medium.
What do you think it is?
It’s his habits and commitment to them every day — and the meaning he assigns to his life.
He’s missionary about and creates the environment he requires to accelerate and ensure success.
He has everything he needs and therefore has abundance and it’s paying off huge.
7. Learn From The Masters Of Your Field
“The difference between education, learning and coaching is that coaching is directly intended to deliver accelerated results in the real world right now.” — me
I’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars on coaching, education, books, courses and knowledge.
Hands on deep coaching where you’re on the phone for 90 minutes at a time going through your problems and jamming on solutions with a master that’s done what you want to do is the hands down most valuable money you can spend.
You learn the secrets, nuance and most importantly — avoid the massive mistakes and pitfalls.
When I want to learn something, I go and get the best advice I can get. And that’s advice I pay for.
When I wanted to learn about publishing, I hired Ryan Holiday for consulting calls and I did several of them to pick his brain and we produced my book strategy together.
I learned all I ever needed to know (for my sake at the time) about the publishing industry in those calls than I could have spent digging around learning and asking people.
What most consider “research” that’s ineffective.
Literally saved me years and taught me things I couldn’t have learned anywhere else other than what a best-selling author could have told me — especially one who himself was coached by Robert Greene — another master and best-selling author of the 48 Laws of Power and Mastery — arguably the best books on those subjects.
What’s even better is the doors those calls open up. With Ryan, we discovered key introductions he made that got my work published and we now have a trusted working relationship.
Whenever I’m ready with work, I can tap him to get me where I need to go when it comes to my books and publishing goals.
To top off my coaching consumption, I’m now taking a consulting course from the world’s best consulting coach — Sam Ovens of Consulting.com — and it’s blowing my mind.
Three for three on coaches blowing my mind so far between Benjamin Hardy, Ryan Holiday and now Sam Ovens.
Even after starting a company from a world renown start up lab, raising 7 figures of funding and building a product and team of 8 people, when I decided to kick off a consulting practice, I took (and am still taking) Consulting.com’s six week immersive program.
It’s the best $2,000 I’ve ever spent.
Besides being the absolute best A to Z training out there to kick off a practice today, it kept me sharp and taught me a new perspective than the VC backed Silicon Valley start up entrepreneurship I was used to.
There are always secrets that masters share that you can’t learn until your trial and error reaches their level of success — and that often takes a lot of time, money and learning.
Why not grab it from a master for a few thousand dollars?
The nuance of competing at the top, the inches you can’t learn from anyone else and the tips and tricks that masters teach you are priceless.
I was on a strategy call and told someone to create three different checklists for when they publish their work, for marketing, strategy and writing. A checklist for each article they write.
Starting from scratch, this new writer got a pro tip that upped his performance immediately and saved him the time to begin “racing” hard. Now, he’s racing hard from day one and he likely would have begun to use checklists years down the line if he made it that far.
Learn from masters, pay for it — it’s the best money you’ll ever spend.
8. Don’t Drink Alcohol
“Avoid using cigarettes, alcohol and drugs as alternatives to being an interesting person.” — Marilyn Vos Savant
Alcohol is killing your performance like you have no idea. If you think you’re weekend downtime that includes going out boozing until 3am even once a week isn’t crushing you the following Wednesday, it is.
If you think your nominal but regular drinking isn’t affecting your brain capacity and ability to focus, it is. This is affecting your deep work which is significant to your success.
It’s not preventing you from doing deep work of course, but the differences from not drinking entirely are staggering.
Yes, we can find all kinds of studies that look to satisfy any hypothesis for drinking, so I won’t include any here because you can find them on your own.
But as someone who used to drink a lot, then a little and now doesn’t drink (for the last 5 years) at all, it’s the single biggest enhancement I’ve noticed to my day to day performance. That and my intermittent fasting diet (eating one feast meal a day instead of 3 meals) are my real secret weapons for massive energy 12–16 hours a day.
This is a serious competitive advantage
I’m literally high on life all the time with blissful days, heightened senses and deep meditation. Every day feels like heaven and even writing this piece makes me feel like I’m on top of the world denting the planet.
My roommate takes drink free January every year and repeatedly tells me it’s the best month of performance of his life. Try it.
If you want me to help, ping me here. Take my word for it and don’t drink. If you want help conquering the habit, I’m here to coach you.
Conclusion
Competition appears to be fierce but it really isn’t when you master the right principles and show up with the intention to reach the top.
Most are mediocre, and not many achieve mastery.
If you put the right principles into practice, working with voracious enthusiasm, out-doing the competitors with ease every day — as a habit, it becomes natural, not hard.
That is the secret of the masters. Benjamin Hardy doesn’t “work hard” every day, he’s mastered principles and it’s now easy for him.
I don’t work hard, I have voracious enthusiasm — and this makes the experience of my journey toward #1 riveting fun instead of drudgery and typical “competition” — and therefore I never work.
Though I’m building my subscriber base and consulting clients, I now operate as though I’m #1 in my field, and it’s because I’m executing against the #1 leaders in my field.
That’s the secret to winning from the bottom and it can become easy for you — if you practice and implement the right principles.
Do it.
Work with me if you’re ready to invest and accelerate your progress. Either way, I wish you the best of luck on your journey.
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