Choose your opponent carefully

Two teenagers study violin at the same small music school in Port Said, and both of them are improving fast.

The first has an enemy, and the enemy has a name. There is an older student who was given the solo at the end-of-year concert that he wanted. Since then, every hour of practice has been aimed at that student. He learns the pieces she plays. He listens for her through the wall. When a teacher praises him, the first thing he wonders is whether she heard.

The second also has an enemy. Hers is her own hurry. She rushes the slow passages because silence makes her nervous, and she knows it. So she practises with a metronome set slower than feels comfortable. She plays the quiet bars again and again. She counts a good week by how long she can hold a note without wanting to move on.

Both of them are more focused than the students around them who have no opponent at all. That part is real. Something to push against pulls effort into a shape.

But look at where each is heading. The first is turning into a player built to outdo one particular person. If the older student leaves for Cairo, half the reason to practise leaves with her. The second is turning into a good violinist, full stop, and her opponent follows her to every stage.

Shops and brands make the same choice, usually without noticing. One defines itself against the place across the road and ends up with a price war and a scoreboard. Another defines itself against a habit its customers want to escape, and ends up with a reason for people to come.

Whoever you decide to fight, you will start to resemble the fight.