Everyone has a competitor - and when we look at that in the context of history every empire has had it's challengers. Rome had Carthage, Athens had Sparta, Britain had Spain and France and thousands of years ago Egypt had the Hittites.

You have no doubt heard of Egypt but maybe you have never heard of the Hittites who fought a number of significant battles with the Egyptians starting in about 1500 BC. Finally the Egyptians emerged victorious and the Hittites disappeared. The Egyptians adopted a number of military techniques from their arch rival - in fact the intensity of the competition helped the Egyptians to become more powerful.

In this economy we often hear complaints about the increasing competition - one thing is definite, and that is not everyone can emerge from this slump and those who will might be stronger than before. Are you using this time to get stronger? Are you developing your strategy and your people? Are you learning from your competition? Will you be the one people remember and know about or will you simply fade away into history - like the Hittites? Where are you currently at compared to your competitors? Are you winning?