Is competition blinding us to bigger opportunities? It's hard being an entrepreneur. One day you're wearing the marketing hat. The next, you're handling sales, customer service, business administration, and dozens of other roles all at once.

There's a reason that around half of all businesses fail within the first five years – it's tough, particularly in the current economic environment, and with a range of legislation, technologies and changing consumer habits to keep on top of. But what if we're making it even harder on ourselves? In business, we're taught that if you work hard, you will reap the rewards.

From the very moment we begin working, there is a focus on individual contributions. Think back to your first performance review – how did you measure up to your peers? What were your wins, and standout moments? These appraisals shape us early on, reinforcing the idea that success is personal, and rivalry is necessary.

It's hard to shake that mindset, and so when it comes to taking the entrepreneurial leap, the fixation on competition continues, extending outwards. Instead of other employees, it's other firms and freelancers that you must usurp. This is ultimately how competition manifests itself in many industries. We're taught that we have to outshine, outperform, and win, so rivalries run deep. But over time, I have come to question whether this culture serves or limits us.

Consider the sheer complexity of modern challenges: sustainability, supply chain resilience and tech advancements; cybersecurity breaches, cross-border disputes and rapidly evolving regulations. Each of these require not just the right skills, but also the right blend of perspectives, expertise and resources that one individual or business may not always have.

It's natural to feel protective about our own achievements in these key areas, but rivalry limits our potential in so many ways. Think about it. We see another company in our sector – a competitor. We see that they face the same challenge as us. But we each go about navigating tiresome hurdles individually, shut away from others in the fear that sharing our approaches, experiences and knowledge will be a self-defeating ritual, allowing the competition to get a head start.

By prioritising competition above all else, we drive wedges and create silos, hindering our ability to address difficult challenges in the best possible way. We also limit our own access to fresh ideas and alternative perspectives, allowing stagnation and stifled innovation to creep in.

All too often, businesses that refuse to collaborate often restrict their access to new audiences, markets and distribution channels. Partnerships can offer exposure to untapped customer bases. And those customers themselves want to see businesses working together with others. Indeed, In today's economy, consumers and stakeholders value collaboration, ethical partnerships, and a sense of community. A brand that isolates itself may appear outdated, overly aggressive or out of touch with modern business values.

True innovation comes from sharing the stage, not dominating it
These outcomes are good for nobody. We need to change our mindset. Imagine if we could set rivalry aside? What if we could reach out to a "competitor" to tackle a problem together, knowing that both of us – and all our clients – would benefit? Many companies in highly competitive industries have found ways to strike a healthy balance between competition and meaningful collaboration.

In healthcare, we now see partnerships like Pfizer and BioNTech's collaboration on the COVID-19 vaccine – a joint effort that pushed the limits of what was possible in record time. This wasn't just a business strategy; it was a recognition that tackling complex, urgent challenges sometimes means setting rivalry aside.

In tech, look at IBM, Google, and Microsoft – all historically fierce competitors. They've come together to develop open-source frameworks, like Kubernetes, which now powers much of the internet. They understood that by creating a shared infrastructure, they could all build better, more reliable solutions for their clients while still competing in other areas.

Even in finance, where risk and competition define the field, firms have aligned on anti-fraud standards, sharing information to generate intelligence which collectively reduces financial crime. No single institution could achieve this on its own; collaboration became essential to tackling an industry-wide challenge.

Personally, I've seen the value in collaborating with competitors firsthand.

Just a few years back, I found myself working on a high-stakes cybercrime case alongside a team from another firm. Traditionally, we would've been rivals. But the case's complexity required specialised expertise in multiple areas, and neither firm had it all.

By trading insights, sharing resources, and aligning on strategy, we achieved a result that neither of us could've delivered alone. The client was thrilled, and both firms walked away stronger, having gained more from the partnership than we would have in isolation.

Thinking differently, from "what's mine" to "what's possible"
If collaboration allows us to open the door to results that exceed anything we could have achieved alone, should we really be consistently slamming them shut without a second thought?

2025 will be a year in which many businesses really think about change and focus on new opportunities. As entrepreneurs, maybe it's time to consider whether this culture of competition is helping us or holding us back. Are insights really the competitive secrets that we think they are, or could instead sharing them in a strategic manner open new doors that we previously hadn't thought about approaching?

This doesn't mean abandoning competition. Far from it. Healthy competition is still vital – it pushes us to innovate and deliver excellence. Instead, it's about recognising that the best outcomes often come from pooling our strengths rather than protecting them.

This requires a major mindset shift, from "what's mine" to "what's possible". A colleague of mine once described this as "competing without fear". By that, he meant knowing your strengths so well that you don't see collaboration as a threat. Instead, it becomes an amplifier.

This is not an easy step to take. Entrepreneurs work hard, the habits of rivalry are ingrained, and those habits have rewarded us in many ways. But the world is changing, and our approach needs to evolve with it. Today, true breakthroughs happen when companies, startups and individuals work together. By collaborating, we facilitate knowledge-sharing, cross-industry creativity, and new product development.

The real challenge is not just changing how we work. It's rethinking how we see ourselves and what success looks like. So, are we ready for that?