The best way for society to prepare its young people for leadership in government, industry or other fields is by instilling in them a sense of cooperation not competition.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree wit

Proponents of instilling a sense of competition in its youth to prepare them for leadership in government, industry or other fields may argue that competition provides an easy method to motivate individuals to excellence. But on observing the competition driven world around us, we notice that competition often snowballs into unhealthy rivalries. The costs associated with an unhealthy level of competition that we witness in modern society today far outweigh the benefits arising from excellence stemming from a sense of competition. Thus, I believe that instilling a sense of cooperation and not competition in its young is the best way forward for a society.

In the given prompt, a key word that must be noted is "leadership". Leadership may be defined as an institution or entity that taps into the collective wisdom and abilities of all those working with the leadership to achieve a shared goal. In order to tap into collective wisdom an abilities, it is cooperation and not competition that we require. Competition thwarts the collective and empowers the individual whereas cooperation empowers the collective while supporting the individual. Thus we see that cooperation embodies the spirit of leadership. Thus, the role of a leader, is to build an ecosystem conducive to cooperation, be it in government, industry or any other field.

The next point in support of cooperation would involve the institution of a "team". It is widely agreed that working in a team is the best way to achieve shared goals. The key quality that characterizes a team is cooperation and not competition. All our insitituions, the government, industry, educational institutes, etc. all function in teams.

Proponents of competition may propose the concept of "healthy competition". Competition may be defined as drawing motivation from the possibility of performing better than a peer on a select task. The concept of competition in itself may seem innocuous. But the problem lies in the fact that competition often assumes unhealthy proportions. Modern society has been built on competition. And one could also attribute many of its ills to the concept of competition. If you were to go to the root of the problem of inequality, you would find the sense of competition serving as a major contributor. We started off in a world that had enough to meet the needs of all its inhabitants and all its inhabitants had equal access to all of its resources. But the greed of humans and the spirit of competition which involves having better and more than your peer has resulted in an unequal world. At the education level, if you were to go to the root of the problem of cheating on tests, you would again find competition. Competition has built a world of scarcity owing to the abundance of resources being concentrated in the hands of few.

Thus, the best way for society to prepare its young people for leadership in government, industry or other fields is by instilling in them a sense of cooperation not competition.