There are three sandwich shops within 300 yards of me, all national chains. The third opened a few months ago. As often happens, the new store is popular for lunch, so much so that one of the established stores has a guy walking around giving out coupons for 
free subs, dine-in only. "We want people to come in to take a look at our store," the guy said. But the store is their problem.
The novelty will wear off at the new place, but customers will stay because the food is excellent, the staff seems happy, and the store is clean. Few people will return to the other place, even with free coupons. The trouble isn’t new competition but old habits. The free-coupon place isn’t clean, the staff is slow and indifferent, and – worst of all for a sub place – the bread isn’t good.
This is another case of looking outside for problems and overlooking the real cause. Most often, no matter our situation, our problems are internal rather than external, and much more often than not, are the result of bad decisions, of getting by rather than doing our best.
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