Mind Games When your competitors try to rile you up, sanity is the best policy.

This is the flip side to last month's column on driving your competition crazy. It's meant to help you avoid being driven crazy by your competition. This isn't a top 10 list--it's only a top five, because the key to maintaining your sanity is to keep things simple.

1. Delight your customer.As the old saying goes, "The best defense is a good offense." If you continue to delight your customer, it's unlikely that your competition will get to you. There are two reasons this is true: First, you'll be successful at driving your competition crazy and not vice versa. Second, you'll be so busy that you won't have time to worry about the mundanity ("mundane" plus "insanity") of what your competition is trying to do to you.

2. Don't assume that perfect information exists.It was bad enough before Google Alerts and other news gathering services, but companies have begun to assume a world of perfect information as a result of such technology. They think the minute the competition announces a new feature, service or partnership, the entire marketplace is aware of it--and buys it. In reality, only you, your competition and Google know what was announced. By overreacting, you may inadvertently increase awareness and exacerbate the problem.