A few days ago I was stuck behind a bus, late for a meeting. And not just any meeting. An important meeting. (Are there any other kinds? Heh. Kidding.)

Between cursing myself out for not leaving 10 minutes earlier (too busy checking email – stupid) and scrounging around in the car for a mint (Swiss cheese for lunch right before – stupid again) I stared up at the huge ass of this bus and quickly contemplated my options.

I didn’t really have any, short of waiting and driving forward at the pace of a dead turtle.

That gave me some time to think, and quite quickly, the Blogger Mindset kicked in. Questions started popping into my brain —

• “What’s relevant about that bus to my life right now?”
• “What can I say about a bus on my blog? Why would anyone care?”
• “What parallels can I draw between the bus, being stuck behind it, being late and the world of business?”
• “Is the bus real? Am I real?”

A nascent thought formed in my head. Competition. That big, fat, unmoving bus was competition. In my case, competition to get where I needed to go – but so many parallels in today’s crazy-paced tech world can be drawn between that bus and your competition.

I thought about the competition I’ll be facing with my new startup. A lot of it looks like that bus. But what’s your competition look like?

Don’t Obsess Over Competition But Keep An Eye Out

I don’t advocate tracking your competitors’ every moves, but sometimes they just hit you right in the face. They’re so slow, big, unmotivated and uninteresting but they’re there. And they can still be quite dangerous. Just imagine if any of these animals sat on you…

Be Yourself – Be Better

Turn the question around for a moment and ask yourself, “What do I look like?”

What’s your “one thing” that’ll make you stand out? What’s unique about you?

When faced with competition like my bus, or any other big beastie, I always think:

• Be faster.
• Be more daring.
• Be smarter.
• Be more adaptable.

What do you look like?

Let’s hope it’s not that bus…

Photos by baconstand, bobfoldsfive, erglatz and spynotebook