Regardless of the industry, businesses are often discussed in terms of performance relative to the competition, and it is certainly not uncommon to see executives base many of their decisions on a recent success or failure of a competing business. While the most unscrupulous of business leaders are quite willing to openly seek the total elimination of the competition in order to take full control of the market, healthy competition between rival factions within an industry can be highly beneficial to all of the parties involved.

A professional such as David Kravitz would likely point out that many competitors are capable of being openly disdainful of one another but likely recognize the benefits of the other’s existence. After all, competing factions help push each other forward and stimulate greater levels of creativity and innovation than would perhaps be possible if not for the existence of a worthy adversary. Throughout history there have been countless examples of competitors getting the best out of one another, including diverse competitions from the Cold War-era Space Race to the battle between Bird’s Celtics and Magic’s Lakers in the 1980s.

Of course, there are more contemporary examples of competition pushing innovation forward as well, with the recent SpaceX rocket launch and landing representing a perfect example. Elon Musk’s venture seems to have been somewhat motivated by the opportunity to “one-up” Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin venture, with the SpaceX rocket being the first to have been launched into orbit and then able to return into the atmosphere for a safe landing.

The Blue Origin rocket that was launched and also safely landed preceded the SpaceX rocket’s achievement, with the major difference being the fact that it did not reach orbit. Both Bezos and Musk seemed to take subtle shots at each other after the fact, but it remains the case that the success of one is at least partially responsible for the success of the other.