A Valuable Lesson From The Most Unexpected Place.
Today I'm going to share with you a valuable lesson that I got from an activity completely unrelated to business. Sometimes the most important lessons can come from the most unexpected places.
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Get the avalanche →So the thing I absolutely love about life is that you learn every single day. And one thing I try to do is to get learning experiences from everything around me. Not just from business books or podcasts, but from games, from nature, from conversations.
So the lesson today came from a game. The game of Risk. Now if you've never played Risk, it's a strategy board game where you try to conquer the world by building armies and taking over territories. The goal is to control the entire map.
So I was playing Risk with some friends. And I noticed something fascinating about how different people play the game. Some players spend most of their turns attacking other players, trying to weaken them, trying to sabotage their progress. They're obsessed with what everyone else is doing.
And then there are players who mostly focus on their own territory. They build. They consolidate. They expand strategically into new regions. They're not ignoring the other players, but their primary focus is on building a strong, connected empire.
And you know what? Almost every time, the players who focus on building their own empire win. The players who spend all their energy attacking others end up scattered, depleted, and vulnerable.
A Valuable Lesson From The Most Unexpected Place
And here's where the business lesson hits hard. Because that's exactly what happens in entrepreneurship. Some entrepreneurs are obsessed with their competitors. They're constantly checking what competitors are doing, trying to copy them, trying to undercut them, trying to block them.
And the entrepreneurs who build the most valuable companies? They're mostly focused on their customers and their own products. Yes, they're aware of the competitive landscape. But they're not obsessed with it. Their energy goes into building something genuinely better, not into sabotaging someone else.
The analogy from Risk goes even deeper. In the game, when you spend all your turns attacking one player, you leave your own territories undefended. Other players move in. You end up weaker, not stronger. It's the same in business. Every hour you spend monitoring competitors is an hour you didn't spend improving your product, serving your customers, or building your team.
So the lesson is simple but powerful. Build your own empire. Be aware of the landscape, but make your primary focus your own territory. That's how you win at Risk. And that's how you build a lasting business.
It's very easy to fall into that trap. This simple game was very revealing.
Key Insights
Your greatest competitive advantage is not knowing what competitors are doing. It is building something so valuable that competitors become less relevant.
Entrepreneurs who obsess over competitors are playing a defensive game. Entrepreneurs who obsess over their customers are playing the winning game.
The Risk board game teaches a timeless business truth: concentrating energy on blocking opponents rather than expanding your own territory is a losing strategy.
Frequently Asked Questions About Competitor Focus in Business
Should entrepreneurs track what their competitors are doing?
Light awareness is useful. Obsession is destructive. Knowing the market landscape helps you position effectively, but spending significant energy monitoring competitor moves puts you in a reactive posture. The most successful entrepreneurs are mostly focused on their own customers, not their competition.
What is the key business lesson from the Risk board game?
In Risk, players who spend their turns attacking and weakening opponents often lose to the player who quietly built a strong, consolidated territory. The lesson is direct: concentrated energy on expanding your own position beats scattered energy on blocking others. Business works the same way.
Why do so many business owners focus too much on competitors?
It feels productive because you are gathering intelligence and responding to threats. But it is often a disguised form of distraction. Worrying about competitors gives you the feeling of strategic thinking without requiring the harder work of building something truly valuable.
How do I build a business that does not depend on beating competitors?
Build for a specific customer so well that the question of competitors becomes less relevant. When your product or service genuinely solves a problem better than anything else for a defined audience, competitor moves matter much less because your customers have a strong reason to stay.
Is competitive intelligence ever useful or is it always a distraction?
It is useful in two narrow cases: when you are entering a new market and need to understand the landscape, and when a competitor makes a move that directly affects your customer base. Outside of those cases, the time is almost always better spent on your own product, team, or customers.
About the Author
Martin Ebongue is the founder of martinebongue.com, an online business and lifestyle design blog focused on helping aspiring entrepreneurs build location-independent businesses. Since 2014, he has been creating and scaling online ventures across multiple niches, from digital products and affiliate marketing to SaaS and content platforms, while traveling the world. He shares the real-world strategies, tools, and systems that work, with a particular focus on AI-powered automation for solopreneurs. Follow him on YouTube, X (Twitter), and Instagram.
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