How To Beat Tiger Woods (Not A Golf Post)

How do you beat Tiger Woods?

Don’t play him in golf.

The domain matters. The environment matters. The context matters. Everything is relative.

When it’s time to compete, we don’t want to do it where we have an automatic disadvantage. When it’s time to compete, we have to find a way to do it on our own terms (or at least not the competition’s best terms).

Some examples:

“They have top-rated customer service.” Great, let’s compare talking to a random person in their call center to calling me directly. Take the broad game and make it narrow.

“Their performance is incredible.” Have you seen the literature on skill and luck? Let me show you. Afterwards, we can walk through what we do to maximize the effect of the things we can control. Take the past-results game and make it about future potential.

“I’ve been a loyal customer of theirs for years.” Goldilocks loyally stuck around the three bears house for a while too. Eventually, she realized it was time to get out. This is your chance. You’ve tried all of their porridge and beds, give ours a shot and compare. Plus, we’ve eaten less prior guests, for whatever that’s worth. Take the habitual game and make a new experience more appealing (more positively or less negatively).

Ok, maybe that last one is a little dramatic, but the point is this: define the problem, control where the competition is taking place, and look to win on our terms. We won’t beat Tiger on the golf course, but there are a million ways to win in a million other categories. Our job is to define them.

We can’t wait for the game to be brought to us. We have to bring the game to them. Every time.