Working with your competitors

For many years I have been a strong supporter of working with those in your community sometimes these people are also your competitors.  I get some pretty strange looks from those who do not understand the concept of working with everyone, for the greater good of the community.

Last week, the Calgary Entrepreneurs Club met up and I was blessed to present an important lesson from Bob Burg on the 10 essential questions to ask when networking.  It was great to share this important lesson Bob shared with me during the HTG summit this past April in Dallas. 

You can view my presentation here based on Bob’s 10 Questions.

Back to the importance of working with everyone, even your competitors.  I love to met and share war stories with those who work in the local community.  It is all about respect and knowing who are the key players in the Calgary technology community.  To many times we try to keep everything so close to our own chest and no one learns in the end.  When we met and break bread with others in the same market we learn how others help their clients and maybe even what clients to stay away from.

To often in business who use the word competitor in a negative sense.  I have known basketball players, hockey professionals and even those throwing darts at the pub down the street who have been the fiercest of competitors and the best of friends.  Why can’t this same thing happen in the Calgary technology marketplace?  Ball players share tips with each other, authors collaborate on competing books and IT Professionals need to openly communicate tips and tricks on how we do business.

Wouldn’t this make the world a better place?

This is how I have worked since 2001.  Back in my early days and through to today’s happening, sharing openly with those around us make everything a great place.  It worked well for me throughout my career to date and I hope it has won the respect of my peers.  Sure, there will come a time when we need to keep something close to us however there comes a time when the fiercest of rivals have a beer together and laugh.

Do your part to make the world a better place.

Before this odyssey ever began, there was you, your best friends, and wide-eyed curiosity among you about who would be the first to leap, the first to forget, the first to kiss, the first to tell, the first to fall, the first to get back up, and the first to remember that it all began with a dare: to love in spite of it all.