When Helping Someone Else Helps Everyone
Traditional competition often begins with an assumption:
If you gain the customer, I lose the customer.
If you receive the investment, there is less capital available for me.
If your company grows, mine has another competitor.
Sometimes business really does work that way.
Two companies may compete for the same contract. Two products may fight for the same shelf space. Two businesses may pursue the same customer.
But that is not the whole story.
There is another possibility:
That idea sits near the heart of what Bruce Goldwell experienced at CEO Space.
People who might have remained strangers elsewhere entered an environment where they were encouraged to share knowledge, make introductions, discover complementary strengths and help move one another's projects forward.
What Is Coopetition?
Coopetition combines two ideas that appear, at first, to contradict each other:
It recognizes that people and businesses can compete in one area while still cooperating in another.
Two authors may compete for readers while recommending one another's books.
Two speakers may pursue similar audiences while introducing each other to event organizers.
Two consultants may offer related services while referring clients whose needs better fit the other's expertise.
Two entrepreneurs may build separate businesses while sharing knowledge about suppliers, technology, marketing or financing.
Cooperation does not require pretending competition does not exist.
It simply recognizes that competition is not the only relationship possible between ambitious people.
Competition vs. Coopetition
Competition Says
Protect your contacts.
Protect your knowledge.
Protect your opportunities.
Watch what others are doing.
Make sure someone else's gain does not become your loss.
Coopetition Asks
Which contacts should be shared?
Which knowledge can help someone?
Which opportunities are better for another person?
Where do our strengths complement one another?
What could we create together that neither of us could create alone?
How Coopetition Changed the Room
One reason CEO Space could feel so different from an ordinary business gathering was the expectation that people would contribute.
The person sitting beside you was not merely another prospect.
They might know something you needed to know.
They might know someone you needed to meet.
You might possess exactly the knowledge they needed.
Your businesses might complement one another.
Or one conversation might reveal an opportunity neither person could have anticipated before entering the room.
The culture changed the question.
Instead of entering every conversation thinking:
another question became possible:
That does not mean entrepreneurs stopped pursuing their own goals.
Quite the opposite.
They came with businesses to build, capital to raise, projects to develop and dreams they wanted to turn into reality.
The difference was recognizing that helping another person move forward did not automatically move you backward.
The Coffee Business Lesson
One of the experiences that stayed with Bruce Goldwell involved a coffee business he brought to CEO Space with his best friend.
They needed approximately $50,000 to become compliant, obtain insurance and put the pieces in place that would allow the business to move forward.
Then, on Thursday, they met a gentleman Bruce remembers as a true Superconductor.
He told them that once they became compliant and insured, he would come aboard and bring access to a network of approximately 2,000 investors.
Bruce understood immediately what had happened.
They had not received a check.
But they had received something that could be enormously valuable:
In Bruce's view, a letter of intent showing that this relationship was ready once the company met the required conditions could have become a powerful tool in conversations with investors during the remainder of the event.
The immediate objective was no longer simply:
It was:
Bruce saw a road opening.
His friend saw something different.
By Friday, Bruce's friend was discouraged because they had not yet raised any money.
To Bruce, that missed the significance of what had happened the day before.
The value was not only in money changing hands.
It was in a person using his relationships to reveal the next step.
Coopetition Creates Connection Capital
Imagine that you introduce two people.
One has an idea.
The other has the expertise needed to develop it.
They begin talking.
Eventually they create a company.
The company hires people.
Customers benefit.
Investors participate.
Suppliers gain business.
All of that economic activity may trace backward to a simple sentence:
The person making the introduction may receive nothing directly.
Yet something valuable was created.
Bruce describes the accumulated value created through trusted relationships and useful introductions as Connection Capital.
Coopetition Does Not Mean Being Naive
Cooperation is not the same thing as abandoning good judgment.
Not every person should receive every introduction.
Not every idea should be shared freely.
Confidential information still requires protection.
Intellectual property still matters.
Contracts still matter.
Due diligence still matters.
Trust should be earned.
Boundaries remain important.
A good Superconductor does not recklessly connect everyone to everyone.
Every introduction carries part of your reputation.
That means thoughtful cooperation is more valuable than indiscriminate cooperation.
Why Helping Others Can Expand Your Own Possibilities
Trust Grows
People remember those who consistently create useful connections without treating every interaction as a transaction.
Networks Expand
Every healthy relationship can expose both people to knowledge, perspectives and relationships beyond their original circles.
Expertise Combines
Collaboration allows people with different strengths to solve problems that may be difficult for either person alone.
Opportunities Circulate
An opportunity that is wrong for you may be exactly right for someone you know.
Reputation Compounds
Over time, being known as a trustworthy contributor becomes an asset of its own.
Possibility Multiplies
Two people working together can sometimes create options that did not exist for either person before the relationship formed.
Five Questions to Ask This Week
Then choose one answer and act on it.
Send the message.
Make the introduction.
Recommend the person.
Share the resource.
Start the conversation.
Coopetition Requires Conductivity
Build a More Cooperative Room
CEO Space belonged to a particular time, organization and community.
But the underlying principle does not require CEO Space to still exist.
Five entrepreneurs can create it.
A mastermind can create it.
A monthly business dinner can create it.
An online community can create it.
A professional association can create it.
A mentoring circle can create it.
The question is whether the people inside that room agree to increase one another's possibilities.
The Superconductors II
The People Who Powered CEO Space and Changed Lives Through Connection, Leadership, and Possibility
Coopetition is one of the central ideas explored in The Superconductors II.
Through Bruce Goldwell's firsthand memories and the people associated with The Space, the book explores what can happen when entrepreneurs circulate knowledge, relationships, encouragement and opportunity instead of allowing everything valuable to stop with themselves.
Explore Book II View Book II on Amazon