The thread is simple… competition isn’t the problem, worshipping it as the only game worth playing is. We live in a culture that worships competition. From the youth soccer field to the college classroom to the boardroom, we’re told that winning is the only currency that counts. But what happens when we push it too far? This piece pulls back the curtain on the hidden costs of our obsession with being first—how it shapes our kids, distorts education, corrodes mental health, an