In just 2 sentences, Google CEO Sundar Pichai explained the biggest threat facing every company. Your job is to focus on doing what you do better.

In just 2 sentences, Google CEO Sundar Pichai explained the biggest threat facing every company.

At the Code Conference in Beverly Hills earlier this week, Kara Swisher interviewed Google CEO Sundar Pichai, during which she asked him about his competition. Swisher was specifically asking about companies competing in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), but Pichai's response was a brilliant lesson in how every company should think about the competition.

"I've always held the opinion that you tend to go wrong if you focus too much on the competition," Pichai said. "Large companies, in particular, fail because they stumble internally."

Those words may sound harsh, but they are true. Almost all companies spend more time than they should worrying about the competition. As a result, they spend less time on the things that matter.

Here's the thing: Most businesses eventually fail. According to the Small Business Administration, most businesses don't make it past year five. The vast majority of them are very small businesses that can't turn a profit for whatever reason and the owner eventually shuts the door. We almost never notice unless it is located in a corner near our house, or it is a place that we frequent.

But, failure is not exclusive to small businesses. Big companies also fail all the time. They file for bankruptcy, they lay people off, they close stores, and sometimes they close their doors altogether. When they do, it's almost never because they were beaten by the competition, it's because they made poor decisions, or because they couldn't execute.

What's interesting about Pichai's response is that he's not saying you should never look at what your competition is doing. He is not suggesting that his competition is never a threat at all. Instead, he is suggesting that you are more likely to fail because of what happens inside your company, not what happens outside.

"You want to stay on top of everything that's going on outside," Pichai continued. "But at the end of the day, your success depends on your execution."

Or, to put it another way, it would be naïve not to be aware of what is going on around you, but your job is to follow through with whatever you do. Focus on doing better. Focus on how to better serve your customers and create better experiences. If your competition is already doing this, you should probably take note and then go back and find out where you are defrauding your customers.

Your job is not to look at the competition and try to copy whatever they are doing. You will never be a better version of your competition, so stop trying. Instead, focus on being a better version of yourself. The good news is that your competition will never be better at whatever it is they do unless they stop doing better.

"Look, I think the thing about being in tech is that competition comes out of nowhere," Pichai said. "None of us were talking about TikTok three years ago."

He is right. Competition often comes out of nowhere, which means you don't see it coming. you can't. What you'll be competing for three years from now could just be an idea in someone else's mind. Instead of letting it bother you, let it go; anyway, you can't control it. Instead, focus on what you can control. That's the best chance you have of success anyway.