Srini's Space

Money transactions become frequent nowadays and paying electronically has become new norms now. Cards became outdated and UPI became the most favourite mode of payment in India. For those who don't have any idea about UPI, it's Unified Payment Interface created to make the transactions hassle-free. 

As a user of major 3 UPI apps for almost more than 3 years and also tried 3 core banks UPI solutions, I have seen some advantages in UPI apps. The common advantages are adding multiple accounts and internal transfer between the added accounts are simple and easy.

But one of the competitive advantage I noticed is their speed. The UPI apps QR recognition speed is much faster than the core banks UPI l interfaces. One might think what difference it would make if it is just a few seconds.

Let me take an example, In a country like India, if you are standing in a queue, in a shop or in a gas station, it would usually be a long one. The time taken by each individual to complete the transaction matters here and the longer the time, the more people behind us frustrates. I have experienced it multiple times and what I noticed in those situations were, the UPI apps worked better and faster than the core banking apps. Even if we scan a part of the QR code, the apps recognise it immediately and the transactions would be smooth. 

You may wonder why I have explained these experiences in detail. Just to make sure how a small competitive advantage can give enormous results. Unbeknownst to me, the speed advantage of UPI apps made me switch completely from bank apps direct UPI solutions to dedicated UPI apps for all my mobile payments. I didn't even realised it.

Recently I came across the "Winning Edge Concept" and I think it would be one of the best personal examples I encountered. A small difference in speed made me use those apps (which I have been using multiple times a day). 

I have searched the internet for any articles or case study to judge my experience whether it's an isolated incident for me or common for all. But haven't seen any bench mark tests to check the QR code scan speed. So the perspective is from my personal experience. If you know any case study, please share it with me or comment the links.

There is a zen thought "Every encounter is a teacher" and I think I learned a valuable lesson from my own experience. I hope sharing my experience may teach you something and please share your thoughts or your own experience if you encounter any.

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Have you ever noticed when people are given same situations and same skill sets, some people outshine most? Have you ever wondered why and how? There are so many psychological traits behind it and one of them is "Winning Edge Concept". Let's see what is it and how we can make it help in our lives as well.

What is Winning Edge Concept?

When people with same skill sets and same circumstances compete,what decides the outcome? The small differences in ability may have a large impact in these cases and it defines who wins and who lose. In short, the small differences in crucial times make large impact in the outcome. 

How it works?

How such small differences can lead to huge impact in results? 

Let's take an example, In the Women's road time trial event in Rio Olympics, Kristin Armstrong came first, Olga Zabelinskaya came second and Anna van der Breggen came third. They secured the gold, silver and bronze medals respectively.Here the winning edge is, the time difference between the three medalists. Olga finished approx 6 seconds later than Kristin and Anna finished 6 seconds later than Olga. Just 6 seconds decided the medals even though they rode for around 45 mins. Just 11 seconds delay caused the 4th person to miss a Olympic medal. They all had equal skillset and they were all the No.1 players in their countries. But what pushed a person to only have bronze and silver but not gold was a little competitive advantage which Kristin accumulated throughout her training years.

How to use it for our advantage?

There is a formula called 10x in which the people want to use winning edge. In any field, if you want one step ahead of everyone, you have to train 10x then everyone else. Another classic example from another popular sports, football. 

When most players started slowing after 30, how Cristiano Ronaldo keeps his prime and gives tough to the players in 20? Some of the players words about him may shed light on it

"At work, he's a monster. He arrives first and leaves last. He's working, he's working ... I've never seen that and I understand better now why he's won the Ballon d'Or five times." - Matuidi

"You’d come to training and he’d already be in the gym. Then, he’d stay for extra work after training to work on his finishing, before going swimming and then returning the gym. He was determined to be the best." - Berbatov

I hope no more explanation is needed to tell about competitive advantage over skillset.

Let's finish this post with an awesome quote from Grant Cardon "Your greatness is limited only by the investments you make in yourself."

If you think I haven't wasted your time but added some value to your thoughts, please feel free to check my other posts.

References:

https://www.statista.com/chart/5597/rio-2016-vs-the-world_-percentage-margin-of-victory/

https://www.sportskeeda.com/football/5-players-astonished-cristiano-ronaldo-training-methods-evra-scholes

https://twitter.com/GrantCardone/status/1325825072100208641?t=yWmEKexgdYqPmr-CFnz3Sg&s=19