Cultivate Opposition
Larry Ellison, Oracle's founder, believed in the power of a well-chosen enemy—big enough to intimidate, but not so formidable as to pose a real threat. In 1996, when Informix launched billboards near Oracle's headquarters with slogans like "CAUTION: DINOSAUR CROSSING," they provided exactly the catalyst Ellison wanted.
Sam Walton understood this instinctively. When he ran his first store in Newport, what really drove him wasn't abstract ambition—it was John Dunham's Sterling Store across the street. "Sam was always over there checking on John. Always," a colleague remembered. "Looking at his prices, looking at his displays, looking at what was going on." Years later, after both had moved on, Dunham would laugh about it. "But I'm sure it aggravated him quite a bit early on," the colleague said. "John had never had good competition before Sam."
The right competitor doesn't just challenge you—they give you something concrete to measure yourself against, someone to outwork, a reason to check your displays one more time before closing.