Story Driven: You don't need to compete when you know who you are

by Bernadette Jiwa

the people who create fulfilling lives and careers—the ones we respect, admire and try to emulate—choose an alternative path to success. They have a powerful sense of identity. They don’t worry about differentiating themselves from the competition or obsess about telling the right story. They tell the real story instead.

In a digital world, as the village becomes global, it’s never been more important to have a powerful sense of identity and to avoid the temptation of just competing to win.

We have become reactive to the competitive landscape, rather than responsive to the needs of our communities—those people we hope to serve. We are so focused on the competition, or even the threat of it, that we’ve forgotten to double down on what makes us and our work unique and valuable.

‘The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller.’ —Steve Jobs

We like to believe that change happens at the centre, that it begins at the seat of power. We’re wrong. All change happens at the edges. It starts with the first person who decides to expose a truth. In doing so, they rewrite the story.

The company once known as the maker of ‘the people’s car’ had lost touch with its identity and failed its people. They had forgotten who they were.

In stark contrast, the Tesla team is working towards its vision for the future. Since the brand’s inception, the company has been committed to making a contribution to the wider world. Tesla’s people have always been united around a single mission: ‘to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable transport’.

Whether it’s articulated or not, every business is driven by one of two philosophies. A company is either competition-driven or story-driven.

The competition-driven company is reactive to the marketplace and prioritises beating its competitors and racking up profits.

COMPETITION-DRIVEN COMPANY Reactive Competitors + Winning

In contrast, the story-driven company is responsive to customers and prioritises having a clear sense of purpose and identity. It makes little reference to the competition and is intent on creating an impact.

The people who work there derive a deep sense of meaning from their work because they know their company exists to d...

Story-driven companies have a positive impact on their customers and society. They thrive by making the connection between their purpose and prosperity. Their goal is to make a difference.

STORY-DRIVEN COMPANY Responsive Customers + Mattering

The positive and negative things that happen in and around a company are almost always a direct result of its philosophy. A company’s philosophy shapes its ident...

That’s why leaders have to take responsibility when things go wrong, even if they were not directly involved in the wrongdoing: they helped to create a culture where people believed that the wrong thing was the right thing to do.

Great companies have something in common: they don’t try to matter by winning. They win by mattering.

Great companies rise to our expectations by being who they said they would be.

But whether as an individual or as a brand, you can’t thrive if you spend the majority of your time competing with and comparing yourself to others.

Differentiation happens when you authentically amplify the best of you—discovering how to be more of who you are, rather than finding ways to be a version of the competition.

It’s hard to do work you’re proud of if you’re focused on crushing the competition or...

you can harness the power of your unique identity to build a ...

It’s inevitable that when a company identifies itself as being at war with the competition, it creates a ‘play to win’ culture, where the emphasis is largely on making the numbers go up.

An infinite game is played ‘for the purpose of continuing the play’. Musk’s intention is to stay in the game.

In a capitalist culture, it can be hard to identify yourself as an infinite-game player when the majority of businesses have their eyes on a different prize.

We’re constantly trying to get our arms around what it means to be successful. Success is always something we’re aiming to achieve at some point in the future, not something we feel we can experience in the moment. Success is never now. And we often aspire to attaining it without understanding what it means for us personally.

The pursuit of ‘more’ often leads us down blind alleys towards the dead ends we’re trying to avoid.

The irony, of course, is that the people and success stories we’re drawn to and try to emulate are aspirational precisely because they stand for something and don’t necessarily take the fast or easy route to ‘more’.

success is now—the alignment of thoughts, beliefs, intentions and actions. The journey is part of their success.

While it seems like a daunting task, it’s possible for us as individuals to redefine greatness by changing how we measure success—by replacing our winner-takes-more worldview with one that requires us to ask if we’re doing work we’re proud of.

Moment to moment and day by day, we can deliberately choose to do only the things we’ll be proud to have done and to ...

We start by deciding who we are—what philosophy and values will guide us and our companies—and by investing the time to reflect on...

When we constantly pursue and prioritise ‘more’ above ‘meaning’, we take wrong turns, box ourselves in, self-sabotage or make unhelpful plans.

We become less sure about the best way to achieve our goals, and we make the wrong decisions on the fly. These mistakes happen when we haven’t done the groundwork of understanding our narrative—getting

Visionary entrepreneurs and successful companies consistently act in alignment with their values because they know who they are and who they want to become.

They are guided by an internal narrative that reminds them why they do what they do and where it’s important to head next.

Your story can be a reminder to ask the big questions that will guide you, and make the small choices that sustain you.

‘The critical question is not “How can I achieve?” but “What can I contribute?”’

While we’re busy with the tactical stuff, we often skip the important first step—of reflecting deeply about the reason our idea or project needs to exist and the change we’re trying to create.

This first step is harder than it seems, because asking these deeper questions makes us feel vulnerable to failure.

Understanding what makes them relevant today or significant tomorrow, and why you’re the person to move them forward, is work.

Victor Frankl, author of Man’s Search for Meaning, have intuitively known: we are more likely to make progress when we believe in the significance of what we’re doing.

If having a sense of purpose can improve your chances of success, it’s vital to imagine how what you’re working on creates change and to articulate your reasons for wanting to do it. Why you? Why this? Why now? Why for them? Why there? Why that way and not this? What’s your story and how will you stay true to it?

Our formative experiences—the stories that were the making of us—can influence us (and how we choose to go about our lives and work) long afterward.

Without a narrative compass, our creative endeavours, companies and cultures break down, and we become faint carbon copies of something that’s gone before. Our story illuminates the dark corners where only we can go. It’s our story that guides us.

Meaning Is a Competitive...

Today we’re seeing a powerful shift towards the building of the Meaning Economy, where the brands and businesses that thrive are the ones that enable us to work with our hearts as well as our heads and hands.

many of us are not simply working to survive. Our work is also how we get a sense of fulfilment.

We want to feel proud of the work we do and the companies where we do it.

meaning’s ‘essential quality has to do with having a sense of purpose, value, and impact—of being involved in something bigger than the self’.