Most battles are won without a fight
Let's face it, everyone want more: more wealth, more influence, more skills. Everyone wants their words to have impact, their alignment to have consequence.
If everyone believed they were as wealthy, influential or as skilled as the other person we would see a lot more confrontations. The reason that doesn't happen is because those battles are won without a fight, implicitly due the image projected by the person on top. Example: When you recognize someone's expertise in a field, you wouldn't try to one up them in that specific domain. You may even drop your preparation to do it just after noticing the new project the other person is doing in that domain.
What does it mean to lose such battles? The loser has to rewrite their alignment. They drop the confrontational posturing and instead wear the face of loyalty and try to get ahead by associating themselves with the other person. This may be a conscious choice or unconscious.