“…fools are able to ruin a friendship but wise people know how to profit even from enmities.”

(Plutarch 46-120AD)

You can do business so as to avoid bumping into other companies, or you can focus on your goals (and your strategy) and realise that inevitably, you are going to annoy others.

You can believe the mantra that patents are evil, or you can invest in protecting your inventions so that you can extract maximum value from your hard work.

You can stand on your soapbox and yell about trolls or you can spend time analyzing the vulnerability they expose in your business.

If you receive a threatening letter from a competitor is it better to let emotions rule or stop and consider the weakness in your position that they are aiming at and how you might remedy it?

You see, where an enemy attacks is a weakness that you can now fix. There are many shortcomings that an enemy is quick to perceive. This is one reason why I run war games for clients.

A world with strong competitors is good – with no enemy to fear or compare to you have to be even more careful.

[Photo Credit: kaibara87]