Thanks for the replies.
I think, when I was pondering this originally, I was wondering about those I’ve known who will not compete, or who fold at the first resistance. Those are very frustrating folks to try and work with, or team with. But, while I’d generally predict such a behavioral model as a prescription for failure, I know a few like that who are moderately successful. By that I guess I mean that they don’t live under the freeway.
I really don’t understand that mindset. A, now, late-breaking revelation may be that such behavior is driven by a desire to preserve what they have as opposed to taking on some risk to grow what they have.
As noted, I am competitive. In much the same ways that my respondents, so far, are. In a sporting competition, well, I don’t have much to lose. I’m not a professional athlete, so I don’t have to save anything for the rest of the season. Thus, if I’m still standing, I’ll keep trying. If I lose, I lose and we fought the good fight. Half the time just stayin’ in the struggle brings the win.
Business and romance are the arenas wherein I’ve learned to recognize that, while you must pursue or you’re not in the game at all, there are pull-out points. Points where you recognize that it is just not worth taking it to the wall. If you get to such a point, you retire from that match as the loser.
So, help me out here - I guess this might be the guts of my question - are those who desire not to compete driven mainly by the desire to conserve what they have, do they fear never being able to recapture what they did have should they take a loss or are they, perhaps, unable to deal with a failure and move on? Possibly there are more alternative explanations.
I’ve punched a few holes in the dark (meaning that I’ve crashed a couple of ventures), but I’ve also bagged some successes. My own feeling is that one wouldn’t come without the other.
Eh…, competition’s a funny thing. The guys I work for are far more successful than I, but they’ll screw a deal over testosterone issues when I had long ago recognized that it was either a bail-out or compromise situation.
Perhaps I have things yet to learn.