h life.
Only one of them, however -- the American football game -- is a competitive performance. Symphony orchestras and opera companies may compete against other, but it is only indirect. Moreover, competition is not all that important. It is not the reason that orchestras and operas exist, or that most people go to them. There are no losers in symphonies or operas.
Does this mean that American business culture is inherently more fiercer and more competitive? Do Americans expect business deals to produce winners and losers, in a way that business people in other cultures do not? Certainly the popular language of American business is filled with struggle and head-on competition. The images, if not drawn from football, are drawn from the war or the jungle.
However, even if we view "business" as a whole as a competitive battle in which only one team wins the Super Bowl, American business people, like everyone else, interact in their daily lives almost entirely with people on the same team. The other team is "out there" -- occasionally a particular ri
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