it drives the best. it drives the best artists, athletes, businesses,etc. 

i was listening last night to "reasonable doubt" by jay-z. it brought me back to the early days, for me, in nyc, making records day and night(mostly night). my friends, who were not at all into hip-hop, would repeatedly ask me "how can you work on that crap?"....lol. my answer was always the same, "i love it, they love it, it's really good if you take the time to actually understand it, and it's a really competitive, exciting, crazy world".

the hip-hop scene in nyc was all about trying to top the other guy, and they worked hard at it. they studied the game. they studied each other's records. they studied each other's marketing strategies. they tried to build better records, better street teams, better crews, etc.. artists want to work with the hottest producers, producers wanted to work with the hottest artists. there was power in numbers. isolation wasn't an option.

today's artists seem to be caught up in THEIR own thing. acting like they don't have time to listen to another artists tracks, read their blogs, go to their shows,etc...

and then they wonder why they can't get noticed. you're not in the game, if you're not IN the game.

and you have to work at winning, because i assure you someone else is working harder than you.