Simon Sinek. TED

Sinek goes on to share the story about how he and Grant were slated to introduce each other at an event.

"I went first. I looked at Adam, looked at the audience, and said, 'You make me unbelievably insecure because all of your strengths are all my weaknesses. You can do so well the things that I really struggle to do.'The audience laughed,"he recalls. "Adam looked at me and responded, 'The insecurity is mutual.'"

It was a funny (and ballsy) introduction, but Sinek's self-revelatory joke ended up being more than a clever applause line. By facing his insecurity head on, Sinek realized why Grant bothered him so much: His fellow author was great at things Sinek struggled with.

That's a common dynamic, according to experts. We're often most irked bypeople who highlight our own weaknesses. If you hate arrogant people, it's often because you have unresolved issues about self-confidence. If bragging sets you off, chances are excellent you struggle with tooting your own horn.

By recognizing what it was about his own weaknesses that was triggering his envy of Grant, Sinek was able to focus his energy not on fruitless competition but instead on self-improvement. And that eventually drove him to even greater success.

That's often what a great work rival paired with a littleself-awarenesscan do for you.

"A Worthy Rival can push us in a way that few others can not even our coaches, mentors, or advisors," he contends. "Traditional competition forces us to take on an attitude of winning; a Worthy Rival inspires us to take on an attitude of improvement. The former focuses our attention on the outcome; the latter focuses our attention on process."

"It is the focus on process and constant improvement that reveals new skills and boosts resilience. An excessive focus on beating our competition not only gets exhausting over time, it can actually stifle innovation,"Sinek insists.

So forget about winning the competition and vanquishing your work nemesis once and for all.The comparison game is a never-ending soul suck.If you really want to be successful, you don't want your biggest competition to go away. You always want to have a worthy rival. As Grant did for Sinek, the person who makes you sick with envy at first can end up being one of your biggest sources of self-improvement.

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Simon Sinek says having a 'worthy rival' at work can make you better at your job and even he has one - Business Insider UK