I have been up against tough competition all my life. I wouldn't

Hear the words of Walt Disney, the dreamer who built kingdoms of imagination: “I have been up against tough competition all my life. I wouldn’t know how to get along without it.” These words carry not only the memory of a man’s struggle but the wisdom of endurance, the fire of striving, and the secret of greatness. For competition is not merely the clash of rivals—it is the whetstone that sharpens the soul, the forge that tempers the will, the storm that teaches the sailor to master the sea.

From the earliest days of his life, Disney knew hardship. He labored as a paperboy, endured failures in business, and faced skeptics who laughed at his visions of animated worlds. Yet he embraced every challenge as a gift. The competition he faced was not only from other artists or businessmen, but from doubt itself, from poverty, from the relentless trials of fate. Instead of cursing these struggles, he welcomed them, for they carved him into the man who could create Mickey Mouse, Snow White, and the vast empire of wonder that followed.

The ancients, too, saw the virtue of contest. The Greeks exalted the Olympic Games not for spectacle alone, but because they revealed that excellence—arete—emerges only through trial against others. To wrestle, to run, to throw, to strive—these were sacred acts that mirrored life itself. Without competition, there could be no glory. Without adversity, there could be no virtue. Disney’s words are born from this same ancient fire: he could not imagine life without struggle, because it was struggle that gave him strength.

Consider the story of Thomas Edison. He battled not only against rival inventors, but against the repeated failure of his own experiments. It was said he discovered ten thousand ways that the lightbulb would not work. Yet each failure was a form of competition—a test between his persistence and despair. In the end, his victory did not lie in the invention alone, but in his refusal to retreat from the contest. So too with Disney: it was the continual battle, not just the victories, that defined his destiny.

The meaning of Disney’s words is both heroic and humbling. We are often tempted to flee from rivalry, to resent obstacles, to pray for a life of ease. Yet ease produces weakness, while competition produces growth. The opponent you face today may seem cruel, but tomorrow you will see that he was your teacher. The failure you suffer today may wound your pride, but tomorrow you will see it was the crucible of wisdom. Thus, struggle is not the enemy—it is the companion of greatness.

The lesson is plain: do not fear competition. Instead, embrace it as the path to your higher self. When rivals rise against you, see them not as threats, but as challenges that call forth your hidden strength. When life places obstacles in your path, treat them as opportunities to sharpen your will. For the man or woman who flees from competition flees from their own destiny, but the one who embraces it becomes unbreakable.

What then shall we do? Each day, seek not the easiest path, but the one that tests your courage. Welcome the rival, the critic, the obstacle. Work harder, dream bolder, rise stronger. Carry in your heart the spirit of Walt Disney, who built his empire not on ease, but on the fire of continual trial. In this way, your life too will become a testament: that greatness is born not from comfort, but from the ceaseless embrace of competition.

Therefore, O listener, remember this truth: “I have been up against tough competition all my life. I would not know how to get along without it.” Let these words be your guide. For the contest of life is not a curse, but a blessing, and to embrace it is to awaken the greatness that lies within you.