Comparison and burnout

Any type of comparison leads to burnout. Look above you and you’ll feel like you’ll never make it. Look below and you’ll get arrogant. In both cases you’re at higher risk of failure. Feeling like you’ll never make it is defeating, and being arrogant makes you susceptible to being blindsided and then also getting defeated.

It’s not surprising how often founders compare themselves. We’re pretty hardwired as humans to want to know what other people are doing, and where we stand in the mix. But it’s not helpful. Comparison is occasionally useful, like if you’re all of a sudden losing customers to a competitor, and need to see what’s going on. But that takes five minutes and then you’re done.

More often, it’s extraordinarily harmful, because comparison kills your creativity and leads to burnout. It kills your creativity because you become what you pay attention to. If you pay attention to your competition, you’ll become like them, and lose your creative edge. Your uniqueness will go away, and be replaced by some odd conglomeration of the average of everyone in your industry. Basically, you’ll sound like an AI. Don’t sound like an AI.

Instead, play a game against yourself. How can I be just a little bit better than yesterday, every day? What does it look like to build a routine and a life where I get better every 24 hours? That probably looks like not looking at social media a whole lot. Not looking at your competitors a whole lot. Not over-indexing on trying to figure out the overall best way. Rather, focus on the best way for you.

And of course, you have to tie it back to making money if you run a business. You can’t just be out here seeking self actualization and not pay attention to the bottom line. That’s a great way to end up as a broke pontificator, and no one wants that. But as long as you are driving more revenue with your efforts, then the key is to just pay attention to yourself, not to others around you, and make yourself just a little bit better every day.