Shadowing Practice: What We Get WRONG About Business | Simon Sinek - Learn English Speaking with Video
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So in a finite game, baseball, the other players are competitors.
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The goal is actually to beat them, that your score is higher, and at the end of the game, you will be declared winner, right?
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In business, there's not really such thing, and so to view each other's competitors is kind of silly, because two companies can sell the same thing for about the same price,
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about the same quality, and both be wildly successful simultaneously.
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Instead of thinking of each other's competitors, because then all you do is focus on reacting to what they do, Instead, you want to find the players who are as good
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or better than you on one or many things and have respect for them because their strengths reveal to you your weaknesses.
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The point is you're not trying to beat them.
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You're trying to outdo yourself.
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I'll give you a real-life example that happened to me.
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I spoke at an education summit for Microsoft, and by sheer weird coincidence, a few months later, I spoke at an education summit for Apple.
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At the Microsoft Summit, most of the executives spent most of their presentations talking about how to beat Apple.
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That's actually the language they used.
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Whereas the Apple Summit, 100% of the executives spent 100% of their presentations talking about how to help teachers teach
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and how to help students learn.
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One was obsessed with their mission, the other one was obsessed with trying to beat their competition.
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After my talk at Microsoft, they gave me a gift.
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They gave me the new Zune when it was a thing.
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Some people remember what that was.
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This was Microsoft's response to the iPod MP3 player and Balmer's intention was to beat Apple and make the product better, and by the way, they did a great job.
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It was a good product.
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They gave me the newest Zune at the time.
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And it was great.
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I was finished with my talk at Apple and I was sharing a taxi with a senior executive.
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And I have this character flaw where I have to stir the pot like you telling me not to mention, don't hit the button.
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And I'm like, ugh.
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So I'm sitting in the back of this taxi just like, I've got to do it.
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And I turn to him and I say, you know, Microsoft gave me their new Zune.
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It is so much better than my iPod.
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And he looked at me and said, I have no doubt.
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And the conversation was over.
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Because companies playing with an infinite mindset understand that there's no such thing as a winner or a loser.
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There's no such thing as winning or losing.
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There's no such thing as beating or competition.
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You're either ahead or behind.
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And the goal is not to compete against your competitor.
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The goal is to compete against yourself.
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How do I outdo ourselves?
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How do we make our culture better this year than it was last year?
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How do we make our leaders better this year than they were last year?
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How do we make our marketing better this year than it was last year?
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Learn from your worthy rivals, those who are better than you.
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Have their strengths reveal to you where you have to improve.
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It's worth noting that a year or two after this conversation, Apple introduced the iPod, which rendered both the iPhone, which rendered both the iPod and the Zoom obsolete,
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because they weren't competing against to make a better iPod.
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They were competing against themselves.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “What We Get WRONG About Business”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: Apple, ipod, beat, competitor, summit. This video has 46 sentences and 595 words to shadow. The speech runs for 2:53. The speaker talks fast, about 207 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| competitor noun | /kəmˈpɛt.ɪ.tɚ/ | A person or organization against whom one is competing. |
| obsess verb | /əbˈsɛs/ | To be preoccupied with a single topic or emotion. |
| outdo verb | /aʊtˈdu/ | To excel; go beyond in performance; surpass. |
| render verb | /ˈɹɛn.dɚ/ | To cause to become. |
| taxi noun | /ˈtæksi/ | A vehicle that may be hired for single journeys by members of the public, particularly one with an automated meter to calculate the fare. |
| flaw noun | /flɔ/ | A crack or breach, a gap or fissure; a defect of continuity or cohesion. |
| obsolete adjective | /ˈɑbsəlit/ | No longer in use or no longer useful; now disused or neglected (often in favour of something newer, better, or more fashionable); outmoded. |
| wildly adverb | /ˈwaɪldli/ | In a wild, uncontrolled manner. |
| finite adjective | /ˈfaɪ.naɪt/ | Having an end or limit; (of a quantity) constrained by bounds; (of a set) whose number of elements is a natural number. |
| mindset noun | /ˈmaɪn(d)ˌsɛt/ | A way of thinking; an attitude or opinion, especially a habitual one. |
| stir verb | /stɝ/ | To disturb the relative position of the particles (of a liquid or similar) by passing an object through it. |
| coincidence noun | /kəʊˈɪnsɪdəns/ | The property of being coincident, occurring at the same time or place. |
| sheer adjective | /ʃɪɚ/ | Very thin or transparent. |
| loser noun | /luzɚ/ | A person who loses; one who fails to win or thrive. |
| declare verb | /dɪˈklɛɚ/ | To assert or announce formally, officially, explicitly, or emphatically. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- The point is you're not trying to beat them.
- You're trying to outdo yourself.
- You're either ahead or behind.
- How do I outdo ourselves?
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 9 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I'm, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: competitor /kəmˈpɛt.ɪ.tɚ/, coincidence /kəʊˈɪnsɪdəns/, simultaneously /ˌsaɪmlˈteɪnɪəsli/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like competitor, obsess, outdo.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.