Competition is the creation of buyers. It is The Truman Show of the marketplace. The buyers are the show’s producers; your company is Jim Carey’s Truman.

Truman’s fans adore him. His producers and sponsors need him. Everything depends on Truman believing that his fabricated world is real.

It’s easy for Truman to comply because in his TV world actions seem to have real consequences. Same for sellers. Effective prospecting leads to presentations. Thoughtful presentations lead to full-scale proposal pitches. Nailing the pitch often leads to a win.

As with Truman’s daily travails, the euphoria of success and the anguish of failure effectively mask the truth: Your company’s real potential has been subordinated to someone else’s plotline — a handful of functional criteria that were written long before you and the other actors showed up.

If you’re tired of their fabricated reality, you can break out. You just have to be willing to walk off the set. Life outside the show’s construct is risky, as Truman’s self-serving producer warned. But it’s also more rewarding.