Example: Do I talk to potential clients about our video idea, or do I keep it under my hat for a while? When looking at Apple, I keep it under wraps for a while. Although the product is something I want to jump on now, taking it slow and having patience is key. This helps us build up what we have and hopefully be at least one year ahead of our competition. Then we'll release and strike.

Your post shows how the market and society is changing or has changed – personal interaction is loyalty gold, not enough companies do it. This way of doing business is slowly becoming mainstream, we may have technology to thank for it. Human interaction is now something we crave, getting back to the days before e-mail, Twitter and Facebook. Knitting, DIY projects, and handcrafted goods have made a great comeback because of it.

Your comment is spot on. It's best to plow ahead, making maps, blazing trails and innovating. You nailed it.

I like your post alot but I think the 'who is your competition" question is one that comes out the playbook of the schools of conventional – 20th century- thinking (which is deteriorating daily). Typically in business the main strategy for 'competitive edge' was doing what everyone else was doing but only better, cheaper or faster. I'm willing to bet that the individuals behind these companies got started because they had a passion about what they did (which I am sure you are well aware of) and didn't ask themselves 'who's my competition'. They simply did the long arduous work of developing a company out of something they loved and people followed them because of that love. When you take on a "who is my competition" mindset you only see what others are doing vs. what's the possibilities. This is where innovation is and where breakthrough ideas happen (and what we desperately need in today's market). No one was converging design and hardware before Apple. So if we should "just compare ourselves to Apple", then we should do something that's not being done. If this becomes your orientation then "who's your competition" becomes an irrelevant question.