Love your rival
How rivalry stimulates our creativity and makes our work better.
I’m writing this on a flight from Tokyo back to New York. A 12-hour flight is long enough to think and reflect about what I experienced in the amazing last five days of talks, creativity and fantastic ramen.
I came to Japan for the Awwwards Conference, to give a talk about Designing Like a Supervillain. It’s about Superheroes and their nemeses, order and chaos, the necessary tension between them, and how this can be extrapolated to the creative world. I hope people liked those stories and had a good time. I definitely enjoyed sharing them.
Speaking at an event like the Awwwards Conference is always a pretty fulfilling and eye-opening experience. Seeing all those speakers sharing their stories and fantastic work is very inspiring, but I particularly enjoy the moments in between the actual keynotes, sharing conversations with attendees and other folks in the industry.
I like to listen to those stories, challenges, dreams, aspirations. It helps me to get a feeling for what’s happening out there. We are usually so trapped in our routines that sometimes forget that we need to interact with people outside of our little bubbles.
And, above all, I like the feeling of seeing other people’s work and stories, and experience what in Spain we call “healthy envy” — the feeling of seeing a really great website, film, installation or product that someone else created, and thinking, “I wish I’d made that.”
The paradox of “healthy envy”
Being trapped on a plane on a long flight gives you time to reflect. As I’m sitting here, I’m thinking about the subject of my talk — how creativity comes from a necessary tension between order and chaos. And I’m wondering if the “healthy envy” that I experienced could also contribute to this creative tension.
Don’t get me wrong. Envy is toxic, and there’s nothing worse than been blinded by it. It makes us sloppy, focused on the wrong things, and make very stupid mistakes. Envy basically turns us into assholes.
I’m talking about the “healthy” version of envy, the one that stimulates us, the one that pushes us to find ways to be more creative, the one that drives us forward, the one that makes us embrace a mindset of competition and rivalry.
We’ve seen dozens of examples of great rivalry, especially in sports. Larry Bird vs Magic Johnson, Martina Navratilova vs Chris Evert, Anatoly Karpov vs Garry Kasparov… So many. The beautiful thing that resonates with me is the respect all these athletes have for their rivals. Their rivalry makes them better, and everybody benefits from it.
Easy riders, raging bulls
There are quite a few examples of rivalry in creative contexts: Michelangelo and Raphael, Picasso and Matisse, Morisot and Cassatt, Van Gogh and Gauguin — but my favorite example goes beyond one-on-one competition, taps into a whole generation of makers, and perfectly illustrates how “healthy envy” can unleash extraordinary creativity.
I love movies, and I’ve always been fascinated by what happened in American cinema from the late 60s and throughout the 70s, and how creative and prolific those years were. For me, that was the last great era of movie making.
This burst of creativity is sometimes known as New Hollywood or “the American New Wave,” and the filmmakers responsible for it were people like Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Brian de Palma, George Lucas, Robert Altman, William Friedkin, Steven Spielberg and many others. A whole generation of auteurs that produced dozens of movies, some of them authentic masterpieces.
What the 70s generation in the US did to cinema was to challenge the old studio model, where a film director was essentially a hired hand whose job it was to follow the studio’s orders. The New Hollywood directors were inspired by the raw realism of the stories coming from directors in France, Italy or Spain. Those directors were auteurs — artists depicting real stories, not afraid of pushing the limits of morality: sex, violence, drugs...
Those 12 years brought us so many masterpieces that it’s unfair to name only a few, but I’ll do it anyway: Easy Rider (1969), The French Connection (1971), Godfather, Part I (1972) and Part II (1974), The Exorcist (1973), Chinatown (1974), Jaws (1975), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Taxi Driver (1976), Star Wars (1978), Raging Bull (1980). And so, so, so many more…
How is this possible? You could think it was just a coincidence that all this talent was together at the same time in the same place, but the fun fact is that all these directors were friends, and with that friendship came rivalry. They all knew each other, hung out together, shared experiences, and competed to see who was going to make the next great hit, the next masterpiece. That healthy (and sometimes not-so-healthy, I have to admit) competition was enough to produce the best movie, being the best auteur.
They frequently gathered to discuss their processes, their ideas and scripts. They shared first edits of their creations to be exposed to other points of view. They improved their films based on the input of their colleagues, and by exposing themselves to their tough comments. They also embraced “healthy envy,” letting the success of their peers motivate them to try to beat them in their next creation.
Of course this is not a fairy tale, and New Hollywood was a generation that in the human and psychological side of things was pretty self-destructive. But despite that (nobody is perfect!) it’s a great example of how rivalry, friendship and the creative tension of a shared passion can influence the work, infecting ideas and craft, making them better.
That’s one reason I like going to conferences like Awwwards in Tokyo. It’s full of moments where I have the time to talk with my friends in the industry — we have to do it more often! — and share dreams and frustrations, victories and defeats, and show work we’re proud of. Moments that make me really feel we need to embrace more a mindset of healthy rivalry.
How does having a rival affect us?
What makes a great rival? How can rivalry motivate us to be better versions of ourselves? You know who you admire, you know who you compete with in this industry — let them be your frenemies. Be open, generous and honest in your relationship so you can be motivated by their creativity and craft, and they with yours.
Good rivals help us achieve bigger goals
Having a good rival gives us a metric. It helps us define where we are and how far we can go. A good rival makes us more ambitious, pushes us to set higher goals for ourselves, and raises our standards.
Good rivals keep us on our toes
Ignoring the noise that’s all around us can be a fine strategy, but knowing what our rivals are up to reminds us not to get too comfortable resting on our laurels. Success is fleeting, and you’re only as good as your last project. Don’t think you’ve found the formula and start repeating yourself. Look at what your rivals make and let yourself be inspired. There are always new ways to improve.
Good rivals keep us focused
A rival who always works hard to deliver and who always finds innovative solutions can make us more focused, more committed, more persevering to improve our own performance.
Rivalry improves the whole industry
Great rivals like Bird and Johnson or Venus and Serena made their sports more popular and exciting. The work of those directors during the 70s changed cinema forever. A great creative rivalry not only can push you to make better work, but also can help you improve your industry, making it more exciting for the generations to come.
Rivalry can be the path to a great friendship
It may not always be obvious, but rivalry is a form of respect. You don’t consider someone your rival unless you respect them. And the beauty of a good rivalry is that works both ways. Healthy competition can lead to mutual respect, which then can lead to great friendships. I’m blessed with the friends I have in the industry and how they stimulate me with their good work to get better. I hope they feel the same.
Loving your rival
Rivalry is not risk-free. If we do it wrong it can take us to very dark places. We need to avoid the downsides of unhealthy rivalry. This is not about winners and losers, is not about beating the adversary. It’s is about how rivalry makes you better, and makes the playing field you share with your rivals better too.
I always thought that the same way a superhero needs a supervillain to become better and stronger, we need to find someone (or several) who stimulate us and challenge us to get the best out of ourselves. The ones that create the tension we need to be more creative.
And when you find your rivals you need learn to love them with respect, sometimes they will beat you, sometimes you will. But avoid toxicity, always be generous with your friendship. Our industry is too small for asshole prima donnas.
Love your rival. You’ll only get better.
And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to lie back and use the time until this flight lands in New York to come up with a plan (only slightly evil) to best all my own rivals.
Adios,
— David
David Navarro is Executive Creative Director of Ueno NYC. But as he’ll be the first to tell you, titles aren’t everything. (Just ask him on Twitter.)
Want to engage David in healthy rivalry? Because Ueno is hiring.
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