21/06/2026
A rival isn’t necessarily someone you dislike.
Sometimes it’s the person who quietly raises your standards.
The fighter whose results you always check.
The training partner who seems to bring out a different version of you.
The person who beat you and changed what you thought was possible.
Researcher Gavin Kilduff found that rivals can measurably improve performance.
Which raises an interesting possibility:
Maybe rivals aren’t valuable because they make us better.
Maybe they’re valuable because they help us access more of what we’re already capable of.