To me the whole comparing myself with another is fraught. 
I do like something James Clear said. “"You have to run your own race. Problems begin the moment you start comparing your results to someone who is playing under different conditions.  The 40-year-old entrepreneur with three kids has different constraints than the single 27-year-old. A painter with 20 years of practice shouldn't be the benchmark for someone in year two.  Someone caring for aging parents is not in the same position as someone with no obligations outside work.
Play your own game. Emphasize gradual progress and keep the comparison internal. Are you getting a little better today?"
Naturally when competing with another it is important to know their weakness and exploit them.  Yet when someone is better at something they will automatically be able to use their developed strengths to overcome any ability lessor developed.
I am really vague on the details but I do remember a golfer winning a big tournament.  He won pulling off what was considered a miraculous shot. But I have never forgotten what his caddie told him before he played the shot.  He said, “you have been here before.”
The player had spent time practicing from the position he was now in.  His win was not luck but as someone aid, “the more I practice, the luckier I am.”  He had put in the time working on what was needed.  Not just time doing what is everyday, which he did, but time doing what was out of the blue, just in case.  So ,when he needed it, he had been there before.
My whole point is, the greatest competition I will face is myself. Others lead different lives and have different priorities.  Some are on the way up and others are on the way down.  The whole point for me is being ready when confronted with something out of the blue.  I can do it as I have been there before.
Although a win over myself often means winning against another, it seems to me the real win is when I win the competition against myself.  It matters not what position I am in and the competing priorities I may have. When I have practiced and am satisfied I do what I do best for where I am at, it really does not matter if I come 18th or 1st, I have a win.

I do not know that I agree with “laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone.”
I remember Kim Huges saying something like he tends to cry easy.  Like for a sad episode of Lassie or something (that sure dates me).  I saw him on tv yesterday.  He is looking older.  I am at that delusional age where I think all my contemporaries look older except me.
Tears are often seen as something to be frowned upon for guys to shed.  Yet I have found tears to be really healthy on occasions. I remember when my mum passed, I shed copious tears but there came a time when after each episode I felt better.  The missing was the same but my ability to cope seemed to improve.
When my brother passed I really lost it at his funeral.  To this day I want to shed tears when I talk about him.  We had a very strong bond.  Others would agree he was a hard man to get close to, but we did it and I am grateful we did.  I am the richer for our non judgemental love.
Don’t tell Merril this but when she cries I often do too.  It occurs mostly when she is praying for others.  She feels it so strong she sheds tears.
That sorta leads to my point about not crying alone.  Some people are just softies and shedding tears is a dna thing.  It seems to me that for others it is an empathy thing.  Someone experiences something sad that another relates to.  Often that one getting along side the one grieving makes a difference.   In our happiness and sadness there is a desire to be understood.
But I reckon where appropriate, male or female, shed tears. My experience is tears are health and are not my permanent state.  Sorrow lasts for a time.  It is a valid emotion even though I have an underlying confidence.

On of the things I have a problem with is the lack of self-worth being promoted.  It seems lip service is paid to the value of the individual.  But to me it is always in the context of worth to “the man” and has a very limited scope.
My question is how can an individual see themselves as important and unique and a wonder of nature when being told from youth they are a merely the result of a process stumbled upon?  Anyway it seems in this day there is a scourge of self-harm due to in part the attempted homogenising of humanity and the bottom line lack of self-worth espoused.  It is no wonder hope is a sought after commodity.
I am a great believer in assessing an idea based on the results produced.  Where improvements in the human experience are produced – not just for some but for all I am interested in pursuing that idea.  I was interested to read a while back where someone said at least in the past “left field ideas” began in hope and ended in despair.  Now days so much begin and ends in despair.
For me ever person is a wonder and full of potential.  Everyone though it seems has things that hold back or things that prevent a successful launch.
It is from here different views produce different results.  One view says someone is nothing more than atoms combined together, and I am what I am and will never be different.  Another view says my difficulties which I acknowledge are too big for me can be overcome and I can be different.
It is that view I hold too.  Not as an unfounded hope but as a lived reality in my life and those I know personally or heard tell.  There was a guy in Townsville I knew.  I will never forget it.  He was one guy I really thought could not change.  But low and behold he did.  Another guy I heard tell of his experience in the porn industry.  He was highly regarded and received the highest industry accolades.  Yet with each success he felt there was something missing.  Eventually he found it and left the porn industry behind – not just because what he had been doing was incompatible with his new lifestyle, but also because he wanted to.  He knew he needed the help he had found was available and willingly made the break from destruction.
That is the sort of thing that means heaps to me.  All humanity has hope – not just as a now thing, but as a forever thing.