Most stories of entrepreneurial success—mostly told by non-entrepreneurial outside observers—focus almost entirely on the isolation and negativity of cutthroat competition over opportunities, resources, and rewards that have already been created because of collaboration.
Collaboration creates entirely new kinds of value. Competition, on the other hand, always depletes existing value of its creativity, usefulness, productivity, profitability, and meaning.
Once collaboration has created a brand new industry, that industry fills up with competitors. This will soon take the value creation in the zone down to nothing because, for the competitors who have moved in, everything will be all about the price of what’s being offered rather than about creativity and innovation.
So the individuals who created the great value in their collaboration have to move out of the Free Zone they created and think of what their next collaboration and Free Zone creation will be.