Always Search For That Competitive Edge

Always Compete - Win Forever - by Pete Carroll

Among all of the great competitors that I have had the good fortune of working with or admiring from afar, Jerry Rice is the greatest individual competitor I have come in close contact with.  Jerry would give everything he had to beat you.  When I say Jerry competed at everything, I mean it.

As a great competitor, Jerry understood that by staying in the mind-set of always competing, he could develop the awareness to capture the 'opportunities within opportunities' that other people might miss.  In other words, he was constantly seeking a competitive edge.  It helps to always be searching for that tiny edge in whatever you're doing - even if it's small, silly stuff - because that's how you are going to catch things that someone else might not when it really matters.  It's an extremely power tool.

Just as important as that competitive intensity was the fat that you cold see without a doubt that Jerry was really competing with himself.  He never allowed his success or failure to be defined by anyone else.  Jerry Rice's ability to maintain his competitive focus made him into one of the great figures in the history of sports.  I think his example is an unusually valuable one.

http://www.amazon.com/Win-Forever-Live-Work-Champion/dp/1591844169

Carroll, Pete.  (2011).  Win Forever.  New York: The Penguin Group.