Competition in Money Matters Can Be Damaging

I was 14 when our family bought our first car. On our first outstation trip, I was soaking in the joy of the open road when another vehicle overtook us from the wrong side.

- HARSH ROONGTA

A teenager in the back seat waved at me triumphantly. Something stirred. At the next signal, we were side by side. I egged our driver to overtake.

He did. I returned the wave, equally smug. The other car surged ahead again. Our back-and-forth continued until my father quietly asked the driver to stop racing. The thrill of the moment vanished, and I felt oddly defeated.

The memory of that decades-old incident remains vivid. Evolution has hardwired us to be competitive. Natural selection rewarded the most adaptable and aggressive genes. Our species won the evolutionary game partly because we competed effectively.

But truth be told, not all competition is useful. Some of it is downright harmful.

During company offsites, teams battle over trivia games as if their lives depend on it. That's fine as it fosters team bonding. But in other arenas, unnecessary competitiveness can derail lives.