Unless they happen to be that special blend of better and faster, in which case they will out-innovate and overtake you. However, that probably would have been inevitable anyway.
I think it's a small risk to take to be able to go all out.
Reminds me of playing Warcraft II online.
At first, my strategy was to be as small as possible on the map so that maybe I can stay in the shadows long enough to maybe get strong enough to maybe eventually beat my opponent. My play got much, much better when I realized it's better to be strong even if it makes you more visible, because then they're screwed anyway.
