Rob La Gesse, the Chief Disruption Officers at Rackspace, shares some smart thoughts about why you should hope your competitors succeed:

Why I wish Amazon Web Services the best

A couple years ago, ServInt — a “competitor” to my employer wrote this blog post: Why ServInt Stands Beside Rackspace and You Should Too. I sent the author of that post an email and soon found myself developing a great relationship with the author – Reed Caldwell, the CEO of ServInt. Yes, some could say we compete – we are in the same business – but there is a LOT of business in this space, and there are many ways to differentiate yourself so you serve different segments. ServInt and Rackspace have some overlap. Not a lot. Not enough that I feel either of us sees the other as “the enemy”. In fact, we’ve become online friends. Eventually we will meet in person, and I believe we will become better friends. Today I tip my hat to Amazon Web Services – much as Reed tipped his hat to us years ago.

We don’t “win more” when our competitors struggle. We “win more” when the entire industry wins more.

Dead-on correct, Rob. Your business thrives when your whole industry thrives and you work together to grow the market. Winning is not being the last one standing on a field of dead competitors. Dead competitors tell your customers that maybe you have a foot in the grave too. (Sorry, that was a little grim. Click here.)

Read Rob’s original post here.