If you are talking about competing with Ethereum then you compete with Gavin Wood and Buterin, not an easy task at all :-))
It won't be easy, but we are all men, so there's no need to be intimidated by others' talents.
I'd say the first step to competing with Ethereum is to declare so publicly. Believe me, the Ethereum devs would welcome this. It would also be a bit of a coup publicity-wise for Vericoin.
Yeah, you are right, I always say this that vericoin should try to compete in this area. On the other hand, needs to be realistic, because the outcome of the competition doesn't depend on who is the less intimidated and most ambitious, but mainly depend on a) expertise b) hard work.
I am not sure if you are familiar with East Asia, when I am on business trip I always see the little Chinese guys on the basketball fields in Taipei - they are ambitious and not intimated, but they will never compete with Lebron James, because they are little, slow and by default configuration aren't suited for competitive basketball game.