Competition is good
My entire life being in any form of competition was out of my comfort zone. Something about it, always made me feel bad about myself. Perhaps it’s not the competition but overcoming loss.
Yes… You always hear from people that losing is part of everyone’s journey on the way to winning. And its just a matter of time.
Now, the interesting part is that you always hear that, but it never ever clicks in you until you get to truly experience those losses numerous times and conclude, that indeed, everyone has to go through it, and losing is an important aspect of it, and it is okay!
Sometimes, its not the actual loss that makes you feel bad, but opinions of others, their reaction, their comment demotivates you over time. Thinking that it took them far less effort and time to be where they are – where you want to be. That I believe is an entirely different story and challenge to overcome on the way to maturity.
Here is me and my friend Ibrahim competing in a karting championship. I ended up finishing last...
Deep inside I knew I could do better. But from one Free Practice session to another, and Qualifying. I realized that I found it harder compared to others to adapt to track conditions. On a dry track, you can almost always foresee the outcome of your actions, and that makes you feel really precise and confident, but a wet track makes the same techniques unpredictable. You cannot apply the same methods; it requires a totally different style of driving where you must know how to slide effectively and "pre-move" your actions by "calculating" where you will be in the next half a second. Perhaps that’s one of the things that makes someone a champion material and another not – quick adaptability.
Championship mindset
Talking about that I’m reminded of the current 2025 season of Formula 1. Two top drivers of McLaren, competing with each other – Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Now both of them are great drivers and interesting individuals. As of September 2025, I definitely think Oscar has the greatest chance to win, and that would be my logical assessment, but time might say otherwise. We will see...
At the same time I would prefer Lando to win, and that wouldn’t really be a logical conclusion. There's something about his character that just resonates with me. And in some ways, I see myself in his struggles. And I perhaps know the reason for his loss in 2024 and possibly again in 2025.
It is true what Max Verstappen says, there is only one championship title and not two - that’s just a fact. And at the end of the day that’s what matters in a competition – the right mindset – a championship mindset will win you titles.
Self-criticism, being overly realistic, loss of hope and disbelief in ones capabilities may prevent one from achieving their goals significantly. Norris knows his weaknesses. And I know the exact thing prevents me from reaching my potential too. Now I’ve talked about self-criticism partially in my previous posts. On how it helps you and how it might work against you at the same time. Unless you fix it!
Perhaps being over realistic with things has some role in it too, I’ve been to numerous races in various tracks and conditions, with no particular previous experience in it nor any theoretical knowledge about it. Yet that was enough to beat myself up in realizing that, maybe some things are not meant for someone. In race there is a lot of value in how fast you adapt to something and how quickly you react to it. Its true that genetics, the environment the person grew up in plays a big role in it too. You can clearly see who is a championship material and who is not. A combination of things compile to an overall confidence. Coldness, calmness, obedience and in some ways ruthlessness are almost required. I don’t think Max would have won in 2021 if not for his character. And lack of some of those qualities made Norris lose in 2024 too.
Keep looking for a gap
Perhaps by now you can see, how one’s psychological stance plays as big of a role as physical. Thinking about all that, you realize how relevant these things are in real life, outside of race too.
You can only win with the right mindset at the right time. Some say this mindset is not something you can switch on and off, whenever you want. Maybe its true maybe not. But I certainly believe life is a form of competition or in some ways you always face a competition. You either take or get taken. It may sound overly generic and you may not find any correlation with your day to day activities, but there is definitely a truth in this mindset.
In race, you constantly in search of opportunities to overtake, finding the right moment and in some ways creating that moment yourself, by being faithful to your character. Like they say in the racing community, if you are not going for the gap, you are no longer a racing driver.
I realize it’s the same in life, you get these opportunities in life, and its up to your character to take those opportunities, or create them, but something to keep in mind - there is not many of them!
Keep looking for a gap.