By Irene Conlan -

There is nothing wrong with good, old fashioned competition but there’s nothing wrong with cooperation, either. Competition spurs advancement, improvement and creativity and that’s usually a very good thing. However, I have found that helping your competition can be very good for business as well.

Say what?

Yes, helping your competition can be very good for business – or for life.

It used to be a common thing – to help each other. It didn’t matter if the person you were helping was your competition – they were fellow human beings. Farmers are a classic example. Those of you who were fortunate enough to grow up on a farm know that if one farmer was in trouble, the neighbors came to help. It’s just how it was. If your tractor broke down, someone would help you fix it or come to help you get the work done until you could get it fixed. If you got sick during harvest, the neighbors would show up with their equipment and everyone would help get your crops harvested. When they were in trouble you would be there for them. Such a nice way to live. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule – there is sometimes someone who won’t help but they’re unusual.

Everyone benefits when we cooperate and help each other. I’m not saying that you need to reveal all your trade secrets – Coke shouldn’t divulge its recipe to Pepsi nor should the Colonel disclose his “secret herbs and spices,” but they can work together to make something better for the customer.

Let’s bring this “up close and personal.” Let’s say you write about self improvement and you have a tremendous idea that would help everyone. Don’t we all benefit if I send my readers to your blog  to read about that tremendous idea? I think so. Of course I risk having them leave my blog for yours, don’t I?  But I risk what I call “getting my soul in a knot” if I try to keep it all for myself. If you understand the concept of Oneness, you know that what helps one person helps us all.

There’s a great commercial for an insurance company that has one person doing a small but really nice thing for someone else – and that person, in turn,  does something good and so on and so on. There is a string of people who are happier and smiling because of that sequence of good deeds. It makes you feel so good you want to buy their insurance whether you need it or not. (Well, almost).

There is a great saying, “What goes around comes around. If you send out “good stuff,”  good stuff will come back to you. (So will “bad stuff”). It’s a very true saying.

Don’t get me wrong. I want to have the best blog on the Internet and have it on the first page of Google. I put a lot into it because I believe in high quality. I am very competitive. But, that being said, once I have done that, I need to share and cooperate with others so we all come out ahead.

There is great joy in that.