Competition is good; I sometimes go by the Union Square Market myself, and having exhibited in Trade shows occasionally, it’s easy to think that it would be better if the other booths (competitors) were absent.  Still involved a weird situation where one of my main real estate clients ( a large house plans site ) is made up of several architects that sell their plans on this site and yet compete with each other in search engines and at other trade shows (like the International Builders Show).

Worse yet (or better yet - however you look at it) my clients compete against each other on large brokerage sites like eplans.com, globalhouseplans.com and architectualdesigns.com.

According to how i read Seth Godin’s ideas, the fact there’s so much competition makes it better for everyone - and the more people that come to the main site, each designers site and individually to the competitor brokerage sites are good - it makes it better for everyone.   But I’m certain my architect clients don’t see it that way.

In fact, I’ll go so far to say that in a Bazaar like the 14th street Farmers Market, it’s hard for any booth to stand out - unless they differentiate, and yet that’s what my architects are unwilling to do, which is why I can only take them so far.

I’m about leadership and going all the way - to stand out - and I think that’s what Seth Godin’s Purple Cow is all about too.