Number 2

The company I work for recently lost first place in a technology announcement to one of our competitors and we are in the position of (if all goes well) being in second place.

What is it about being number two, versus number one that really matters? It isn't like you didn't 'place' or that your efforts weren't almost neck and neck with number one.

If you look at traditional competitions, number one wins the gold, the big check, the adulation, the endorsements and the glory. Who remembers who won the olympic silver or was second place on Survivor in season one?

In technology being number 2 (at least for a period of time) isn't the worst thing a company can do. Sometimes (maybe not in the case with Google) being number two means you learn from number one's mistakes. You watch as they go to market with new technology, new IP and then you take the best practices and the worst and you learn from their successes and their mistakes. Think about the browser space, the search space, the internet in general. Companies that reigned in the '90's (Mosaic, Alta Vista, even Yahoo!) are not the leaders of the new millineum.

As we grow as individuals, can we apply this process or principle in our assent to the top in our careers? Can we look at our colleagues in roles that have more prestige and compensation and say...hey, today I am going to learn from this person's successes, but also from their mistakes so that next time the opportunity arises, "I" will strive to be number one.

That, I believe, is possible.