“There is no greater danger than underestimating your opponent.”
Overconfidence and ignorance is a deadly mistake. Don’t underestimate your opponent’s strengths and abilities, while not paying much heat to your own. Even if you know yourself, and not your rival, every victory gained by you will also suffer a defeat. To win, you need to have maximum knowledge about the strengths and weaknesses of both yourself and your opponent. You can’t ignore the need to know what the other person is capable of. People may try to sabotage your plans, intentionally or unintentionally. You should always be a step ahead of the rest. Assess their skills, and train yourself to become better. Never show your weakness. Offer as little information as possible. Do you know when exactly you lose the race, when you think are way ahead of the rest, and you turn back to see where your competition is. Never look back.
If you want to sell a product or service, you have to know your customer’s needs and interests first. So know their problem and offer them a solution. Don’t force a solution on them without knowing their problem- unfortunately that is where most folks start and why they fail. And never underestimate the opposition to purchasing your product. Make sure you overcome every objection. Don’t negotiate your time. Be firm. A 10 minute phone call should not become a 30-minute conversation. Sound boundaries from the outset, and stick to them. It might upset a few people, but it will likely get respect from a lot more who realize how valuable your time is worth. Discover their motives. What do they really want? Get inside your customer’s head.
Sometimes the opponent you are fighting is yourself. Each day you are negotiating every minute of your spare time with other people – from work colleagues to family to friends and to people at the gym and even when in traffic! There will be times when people will try to embarrass you into joining them at Pizza Hut for an all you can kill yourself buffet. Sometimes when you are working on a new project, you may get distracted by other peoples’ luxuries. And, if you’re fine with accepting mediocre results, by all means, you can go and have a good time. My point is not to force you into submission to never having fun. But just remember, you’ll pay the consequences. When you are in a competition with yourself, you need to know yourself the best, you need to keep reminding yourself why you started in the first place.
Never underestimate your opponent or yourself. Get inside their head. They are never as strong as you think, and never that weak either.