On your marks...

Everybody loves a winner. And everybody loves to be a winner. I'm not proud of it but I am one of those übercompetitive people. I will choose my battles though. I don't care too much about losing at boardgames and I am certainly not sporty enough to ever win a medal in any kind of athletics. But when it come to battles of the mind, my darker side takes over.

I have always had this drive to be the best. Getting a good grade in school, even an excellent one, wasn't enough as long as somebody else had a better one. Of course that philosophy becomes harder and harder to maintain as you move up the academic ladder. The playing field gets tougher the further you go. By the time I got to university I had to acknowledge that there will always be somebody out there smarter than you. A valuable life lesson.

Our business plan competition draws to a close this coming week and it has seriously brought out my competitive streak again. I find myself wondering what the other teams are up to, trying to spot the favourites and the dark horses. Fortunately my sentiment is shared by the rest of the team and we are all working very hard to iron out the last flaws in our plan. It has even put us on a plane to the Netherlands this week to meet with the brains behind the patent. Now that is going the extra mile, 202 of 'em in fact! We did really well in the first round and I do believe we stand a fair chance of coming out on top but we can't get too cocky just yet. Arrogance breeds ignorance and that we can not afford.

There are rumours flying about surrounding the prizes to be won. I'm no holier than the next person and of course I would welcome a material reward but the main reason we are all keen on winnning is the prestige that comes with it. A resume that can boast winning a business plan competition carries some real weight around here and in the cut-throat world that is the London job market we can all use a competitive edge.