Never lose sight of the blade
It should go without saying that the blade you should never lose sight of is your opponent’s blade. (It also helps to know where the hell your sword is, but that’s a different principle.) If you don’t know where your opponent’s blade is, you can’t defend yourself from it. In general, this lack of knowledge will result in a serious injury (usually to you). Of course, even if you keep your eye on the blade at all times, you can still get wounded. But at least it improves the odds that you won’t.
A skilled sword fighter responds instinctively to the moves of the opponent. But no matter how skilled and experienced he becomes, he never thinks himself so good that he doesn’t have to worry about where the opponent’s blade is.
This translates two ways. First, always know what your competition is up to; and second, never lose sight of your own goals. They can too easily slip out of your grasp.
To go along doing your business without regard to your competition can (and probably will) doom you to failure. If everyone else is offering the Model-Tin various colors, but you only sell it in black, your customers will shop elsewhere. Even if you did invent the assembly-line process.
This does not mean you should always copy what your competition is doing-it may be wrong for you. But you should at least know what your competitor is doing.
In the same way, you should never forget your long term goals. You should have one or two, probably no more than three. You can break them down into the steps needed to attain them, but the goals themselves should always be m View.