Growing up in a competitive atmosphere can mess up your perspective on success and life; it started with sports for me and transitioned to academics...then music, and finally culinary arts. I do have some competitive natured/professional issues that I currently struggle with--albeit far less every day...I'm getting "better."I am not the quickest dude when it comes to self-awareness.
Number one on that list, and some great advice I would give to anyone silly enough to ask is this: success of a colleague or competitor does not affect YOUR success! This has taken me years to realize and to get over, even though I do have to consciously remind myself from time to time--more or less a daily basis. It is very easy to focus on someone else's success when you feel as if you should be just as, if not more successful; this lead to years of not speaking to other athletes on the field, musicians at clubs, or other chefs at community events.
The ego is a powerful, and more often than not stupid, thing to embrace.
Sooner or later I came to realize that my path, and that of others outside of my circle were separate. And although these trajectories were distinct, who knew what I was going through or was up against better than my peers? Suddenly you realize that you've wasted a lot of time and energy trying to problem solve in a vacuum!
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