Ah, you see it as competition, that might be the issue ;)
I know lots of people who say much the same, yet, they also want the promotion, extra money and opportunity. This isn't about competition, it is about understanding human behavior and the way people react to inputs. If you are completely self-sufficient and need nothing from no one, then you don't need to care about how they react to you - but if you need to collaborate with others and rely on others for some kind of trade, then it is worth thinking about how they think. This isn't about appearance at all, it is about understanding human behavior, including our own. Again what I find is that people make decisions that go against the direction of what they actually want from life, in pretty much every way imaginable, whether their focus is money, opportunity, spirituality, emotional and physical wellbeing or love. Everything takes an investment of some kind - most fail to invest well.