"It works! As your competitors rise, eventually they have done to them what they did to you, and if you sit there a while, you don't have to do a thing -- nature takes care of it. "
whaaa???
Of course, so do you.
What does the "river" represent? The flow of activity/competition/life? Why would you sit still and watch it all pass by you?
If A = the point where you and your competitor started in this "river" journey, B = the point at which you got out of the river and sat by it, and C = some distant point where your competitor is still "moving" with the river, then you have a situation where A < B < C.
How an earth can your enemy pass you by? Unless there's a tide that makes the river flow in again at some point?
My logical brain can't handle this ...
Instead of having an inbox of his enemies' obituaries with an unread count, he sees a continuous stream of corpses float by.