In the trenches of building a business, few moments test your blood pressure quite like the moment a brand-new competitor pops up — especially when that competitor feels a little too familiar.

When Tom and I were growing Canvas On Demand, I met a guy named "Dex" at a networking event. Dex became a "friend" and started stopping by our facility on a regular basis to check out our operations and see what we were working on.

Once Dex realized how well Canvas On Demand was doing, he quit his job, stole our business plan, hired some of our key employees, and launched a direct competing venture using our blueprint line-for-line.

Now, most founders in that situation panic, call a lawyer, or spend the next six months in a dark room obsessing over how to "crush" Dex.

Here's what actually happened: Dex failed.

Why? Because he followed our stolen plan to a T and didn't pivot when things weren't working. By the time Dex got his hands on our original strategy, Tom and I had already realized it had serious flaws, threw out the broken parts, and adapted to what the market was actually telling us. Dex was busy executing yesterday's playbook while we were inventing tomorrow's.

Why Competition Isn't the Enemy

When you're creating or expanding a market, seeing new competitors enter the field isn't a death sentence. In fact, it's a blessing in disguise.

It validates your market. Competition is proof that your idea actually works and that real customers are willing to spend real dollars on it.

They share the heavy lifting. When you're an industry pioneer, educating the market is expensive. Competitors spend their own cash to build market awareness, leaving you free to capture customers with your superior execution.

They give you a free R&D team. Study them, appreciate what they do well, learn from where they mess up, and borrow best practices to escalate your own offering.

The Scarcity Trap: Why Trying to "Crush" Competitors Backfires

We've both worked with companies that were completely obsessed with "crushing the competition." Here's why that mindset is toxic:

It's unhealthy. It breeds constant anxiety and paranoia across your leadership team.

It destroys innovation. You spend all your time reacting to what someone else is doing instead of leading the market.

It focuses on scarcity over abundance. You start building features or running promos just to hurt your rival instead of actually adding value to your customers.

Someone else does not have to fail in order for you to succeed.

Pop your head up every once in a while to see what's going on in the market, then put your head back down and focus. Compete only with yourself. When you focus on constantly leapfrogging your own performance, you build a sustainable moat — and let everyone else play catch-up.

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The EntreManure bottom line: don't overreact to your competition. Just because someone else is jumping off a bridge without a bungee because it's "cool" or "hip" doesn't mean you have to jump too. Stay focused on your execution, adapt when the market changes, and let the copycats follow yesterday's plan.