Disney’s animated film “Raya and the Last Dragon” may not be one of the most famous titles in their catalogue, but it is one of my personal favorites.
After watching it, the story left a quiet afterglow in my mind, and I found myself thinking:
“Isn’t this a story that can be translated directly into the world of business?”
In this article, I would like to share some reflections from the movie through the lens of Eastern philosophy and how we relate to competition in business.
Summary of this article: 5 key perspectives on “not fighting your competitors”
| The theme the movie raises | “From division to unity.” Even in a world of ongoing conflict, the story suggests that people can return to being one if they are willing to come closer together. |
|---|---|
| The assumption that competitors = enemies | Watching “Raya and the Last Dragon” made me question a common business belief: we assume competition is normal and competitors must be beaten, but is that really true? Is there another path where we can prosper together? |
| The possibility of co-creation | Just like the joint seminar we held with five companies, it is possible to create a space where each party brings its strengths without pulling others down. |
| The key: the way of “water” | The teaching of 老子（Laozi） about being “like water” that does not compete can be applied directly to how we face competitors. |
| Holding questions rather than chasing answers | There is no single correct way to harmonize with competitors. Instead of rushing to an answer, continuing to ask “How do I want to live and work?” opens the path forward. |
I will walk through these points in more detail below.
A brief overview of “Raya and the Last Dragon”
The story takes place in a land called Kumandra, which was once a single united nation.
However, after people began to fight over the powerful “Dragon Gem” left behind by the legendary dragon Sisu, the land was split into five separate kingdoms (Heart, Talon, Fang, Spine, and Tail).
Each nation tries to obtain the gem to protect its own people.
They fight to seize it, grow suspicious of one another, and the conflicts never end.
The main character, Raya (a girl from the Heart kingdom), travels with the legendary dragon Sisu, trying to restore the Dragon Gem to its original, unified form.
Along the way she encounters Namaari, a girl from the rival Fang kingdom who once betrayed her when they were children.
In the end, the leaders of each nation bring together their shards of the gem,
and the land is restored to “one united nation” again.
That is the arc of the story.
As I watched this clear movement “from division back to unity,” I began to feel that it closely mirrors
the way we think about “competitors” in business.
Are our competitors really “the enemy”?
I work in web marketing specifically for professional services (lawyers, accountants, consultants, etc.),
so I encounter the word “competitor” almost every day.
- Beat competitors in search rankings
- Highlight strengths that competitors don’t have
- Analyze competitors’ tactics and differentiate from them
In the business world, this way of thinking is treated as completely normal.
Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with it.
But watching “Raya” made me pause and ask myself a question.
In the film, the five kingdoms grow so suspicious of each other that conflict escalates,
and eventually no one is truly happy.
We see similar patterns in business:
- Fighting over the same pool of clients
- Extreme price wars that erode margins
- Marketing that focuses on attacking competitors’ weaknesses
We often accept these patterns as “just the way things are.”
Yet, as I watched the movie, I started to feel that there might be another option: a way to move forward without fighting.
A real experience of a “conflict-free space”
Several years ago, I invited four other firms that also serve professionals,
and together we organized a joint seminar with five companies speaking on the same stage.
We held it in Tokyo, and about 200 people attended.
Seen from the outside, those five firms would usually be labeled as “competitors.”
We were all offering website development and marketing support to the same category of clients.
Under normal assumptions, simply standing side-by-side in the same room
should have created a certain tension.
And yet —
on that day, there was no sense of conflict in the room at all.
Each firm calmly shared its own expertise and know-how.
The participants simply chose the company that felt right for them.
Instead of trying to take business away from each other, the mindset in the room was:
“If our strengths reach the people who truly need them, that is enough.”
It was a quiet and healthy atmosphere.
I remember feeling very comfortable in that space.
Even companies that are normally called “competitors”
can avoid dragging one another down
and still create value together in the same place.
That scene overlapped in my mind with the final part of the movie,
where the five kingdoms bring their gem shards together.
The key may be found in the way of “water”
In “Raya,” “water” plays a symbolic role again and again.
- The legendary dragon Sisu is a being that governs water
- The dark spirits called the Druun fear water
- Water appears as a force that calms conflict and heals division
In Eastern philosophy — especially in the classic text attributed to 老子（Laozi） —
“water” is held up as one of the highest models of how to live.
老子（Laozi）「上善は水の若し。水は万物を利して争わず」（Jōzen wa mizu no gotoshi. Mizu wa banbutsu wo rishite arasowazu）
Water does not fight or cling.
It simply exists as a “flow,”
quietly nourishing and harmonizing everything around it.
The atmosphere during that five-company seminar
felt very close to this kind of “water-like” way of being.
What water can teach us about dealing with competitors
After watching the film, I kept wondering why I was so drawn to the image of water.
As I reflected on it, it gradually began to overlap with an idea from Eastern thought:
“living like water.”
Water does not insist on a fixed shape.
If you pour it into a glass, it takes the shape of the glass.
If it flows into a riverbed, it follows the shape of the river.
It settles in low places and quietly moistens what is around it.
In business terms,
it might mean not trying to “beat” competitors head-on,
but instead finding a position where you can naturally flow alongside them.
Of course, this is easy to say and hard to practice.
Precisely because it is difficult,
Eastern philosophy has long regarded “water” as an ideal to aspire to.
Recovering the “lightness” of coexisting with competitors
When we try to make ourselves look bigger,
or always stand above others,
our hearts start to feel heavy.
Seeing competitors as “the enemy” creates a world that is,
in a sense, like “stone” — hard, colliding, and wearing each other down.
By contrast, the world of water is light.
It moves, circulates, and does not carry unnecessary weight.
Just by shifting our perspective a little,
competitors stop looking like enemies we must fight
and instead begin to look like “other streams” flowing within the same river system.
On the day of that five-company seminar,
each firm simply brought its own strengths to the table,
without feeling the need to compete.
The atmosphere was very much like
water currents gently merging together,
quiet and unforced.
In that quietness,
no particular competitor “won” or “lost.”
Instead,
there was just a natural flow in which
“the right people received what they needed from the right provider.”
That image has stayed with me for a long time as one important hint.
Even so, I still don’t have a clear answer
After writing all of this, I should admit something:
I do not have a neat framework for
“how to collaborate with competitors.”
If anything, I am still full of questions.
- Where does coexistence with competitors actually begin?
- What distance feels healthy for both sides?
- How far should we go in reaching out before it becomes forced?
When I think about these questions,
I realize I am not yet ready to give a definitive answer.
There is, however, one thing I am quite sure of.
If we only live in a world of winning and losing,
we might gain results,
but we slowly lose our inner calm.
When we explore a world that is not built on constant competition,
a different kind of value appears —
a sense of “lightness” and “well-being”
that cannot be measured by profit alone.
Moving in that direction seems to bring
a deeper sense of safety in our work
and a pace of life that matches who we really are.
I do not want to give up on that kind of world.
Not “finding the right answer” but “holding the right questions”
In Eastern thought,
there is a quiet respect for
“not rushing toward the answer.”
Business culture often pushes us to
“decide quickly” and “present clear solutions.”
But from an Eastern philosophical perspective,
That is exactly how I see this article.
- How do we want to relate to our competitors?
- Can we build relationships that “flow together” rather than fight for the same ground?
- What does it really mean to “work like water”?
These are not questions that can be solved in a single day.
Yet there is no need to feel discouraged by the lack of immediate answers.
In fact, the very act of continuing to explore these questions
is, I believe, a deeply Eastern — and deeply human — way of living.
Will you keep fighting, or will you aim for harmony?
As I wrote this piece,
I was reminded again that
there is no single correct way to build relationships with competitors.
However, if we can remain like water —
not fixed in shape,
able to adapt to circumstances,
and able to nourish both ourselves and those around us —
then even in business,
we may find a much richer way of operating.
- Do we really need to fight?
- Do we really have to “win” at all costs?
- Do we need to keep comparing ourselves to others?
Holding these questions,
I would like to keep revisiting
how I choose to work and live.
There is a path where we choose not to “fight” competitors.
There is also a path where we consciously seek “harmony” with them.
I want to keep quietly exploring
what those paths could look like in practice.
