Avoiding Comparisons and Embracing Independence

Navigate the psychological challenges of entrepreneurship with confidence and purpose. Learn to avoid the comparison trap, build self-confidence, and stay focused on your unique vision by setting clear goals, celebrating small wins, and embracing the entrepreneurial journey's inherent ups and downs.

Entrepreneurship, by its nature, can be an isolating venture where the lack of direct peers and mentors can amplify feelings of uncertainty and self-doubt. The isolation can lead to the temptation to compare oneself to others, particularly to those in more traditional roles. Recognizing that this comparison is a distraction rather than a construct, is a benchmark in the first step in maintaining focus on your unique path.

‍

It's crucial to acknowledge that challenges and stressors are universal, not unique to the entrepreneurial experience. Friends and peers in traditional employment face their own sets of concerns or pressures, from navigating corporate politics to pursuing career advancement. This realization helps demystify the entrepreneurial path, underscoring that each journey has its own obstacles and rewards, making comparisons both unhelpful and misleading.

‍

One of the most significant advantages of entrepreneurship is the autonomy it offers control over one's schedule, decisions, and work. This autonomy is a privilege you should cherish when you're caught in moments thinking the grass is greener on the other side. Embracing this freedom and responsibility allows entrepreneurs to appreciate their paths’ unique benefits, further distancing themselves from the pitfalls of comparison.

‍

A clear, well-articulated vision is essential for staying focused and avoiding distractions. This vision should be supported by specific goals and metrics that align with your personal values and the impact you wish to make through your business. There are certain exercises you can use to help solidify your future aspirations and provide a tangible reminder of what you're working towards and why it matters.

‍

The newspaper headline is one of them. Baaqir and I went through this when we hired culture coaches to help us define our vision and mission together. If you write down what you picture being written about your business in 5-10 years in a newspaper headline, it's a great way to figure out what you are really in entrepreneurship for. Take some time to write down 15 to 20 different newspaper headlines that would be written about your business in 5 to 10 years.

‍

The great thing about this exercise is that it makes you really think, what about your business do you want people to talk about in the future? Navigating partnerships and team dynamics requires clear communication and shared values. Avoid the trap of comparing your contributions to those of your partners by focusing on agreed upon metrics and outcomes. Recognizing that each individual brings unique strengths to the team allows for a more synchronous and productive collaboration where the focus remains on collective progress rather than individual comparison.

‍

As businesses and individuals evolve, so too will roles and focuses within entrepreneurial ventures. Open dialogues about changes, growth and shifting interests are vital to maintaining alignment and ensuring that all partners are contributing meaningfully to the venture’s success. This adaptability is a strength allowing the business to remain dynamic and responsive to new opportunities and challenges. Avoiding the comparison trap and staying true to your vision is an ongoing process requiring mindfulness, resilience, and a commitment to personal and collective growth.

‍

By valuing the unique advantages of entrepreneurship, clarifying your vision, and fostering open and supportive partnerships, you can navigate your journey with confidence and purpose. Remember, the true measure of success is not how you compare to others, but how closely you align with your own values and goals in your business journey. Self-confidence emerges not just as a beneficial trait, but as a fundamental necessity.

‍

Entrepreneurs face a landscape devoid of external validation that most traditional careers provide. Successes can be sporadic, and the path is often punctuated by setbacks and failures. In this environment, robust self-confidence is the anchor that keeps an entrepreneur steadfast in the pursuit of long term goals. The comparison trap can significantly derail progress, we call it. The grass is always greener mentality.

‍

This psychological hurdle stems from an evolutionary predisposition to assess our situation relative to others for our own survival. For me, this is manifested as comparing the stressors of entrepreneurship with the seemingly more secure paths of traditional employment. There are so many aspects of traditional employment that I've never experienced, and therefore do not consider when making the comparison. Recognizing and overcoming this instinct is crucial for maintaining focus on your objectives and the unique rewards that come after working hard, consistently and without distraction.

‍

Comparison is, however, a part of measurement, and what gets measured gets done. But there are some key limits we've learned in the past. We measure the co-founder's value year to year with metrics that were unproductive for the business's growth, like pre-production, creative filming, or editing. The value is different between basic assembly and greenscreen keying and visual effects and color grading and motion design and animation.

‍

Yet we counted everything the same. Now that wasn't even the actual problem. The core problem was that we were measuring attributes that had nothing to do with business development in the first place. So in trying to avoid a misallocation of compensation across owners, we created a system that improperly valued the founder's role entirely and fostered a negative culture by adjusting equity in parallel.

‍

This was completely backwards, and most importantly, it contributed to driving top salespeople out. Be strategic and forward-thinking about how much you compare and measure. We reviewed founders' worth at the end of every single year, and we related our conclusions to an extremely heavy attribute – equity. Let me describe what I mean with an example of business development by founders.

‍

It can take a long time to generate valuable sales and leads. If your sales cycle time is two months on average, and you were to evaluate a co-founder every six months on closed sales in total, you might be taking that data point too soon. That doesn't mean you can't measure meetings secured with prospects or any deals closed, but those data points shouldn't change something as big as equity in such a short amount of time.

‍

If you partner with your co-founder, you should believe in the long term that they are going to be acting in the best interest of your company. You don't need to shift around equity to change somebody's behavior. You can make sales compensation much higher. You can provide bonuses for any milestone that you want. If nothing works to inspire progress between you and your team members in the short term, you have a much bigger problem on your hands – you don't have the right people to grow your business. 

‍

The best way to avoid the comparison trap is to focus on providing results and building self-confidence. A self-confident individual is less likely to engage in unproductive comparisons, and is more likely to be a positive benchmark for others. Strive to be the person others compare themselves to. Hoping they use that comparison as motivation rather than the opposite.

‍

Define clear, achievable goals. Establishing clear metrics for success is essential. Knowing what you're working towards and having specific benchmarks helps maintain focus and provides a sense of progress, which is critical for building confidence. Celebrate small wins. Acknowledging and celebrating small achievements along the way can bolster self-confidence. It serves as a reminder of your capabilities and progress, even when larger goals seem distant.

‍

If a co-founder makes a big sale, you should focus on celebrating their greatness rather than relating it to your own progress. The only thing that affects your progress or ability to do something in business should be how you alone choose to spend your time. Continuous learning and mastery. Deepening your understanding of your business and industry helps solidify your confidence in your own venture.

‍

Knowledge is power and a thorough grasp of your field can make you feel more secure and less prone to doubt. Viewing setbacks as learning opportunities rather than failures is vital. This mindset helps maintain self-confidence by valuing growth and resilience over perfection.

‍

Negative assumptions, often rooted in comparison, can distort reality and undermine self-confidence. Focusing on tangible metrics and outcomes rather than subjective judgments helps maintain a clear view of your business's health and progress. Remember, our brains have evolved to detect threats so much that we will perceive a threat when one isn't even there. If you base your actions or conclusions on unpacked assumptions, you're bound to be wrong more than you're right. Those aren't good odds. 

‍

The entrepreneurial path is inherently filled with ups and downs. Accepting this volatility as part of the journey and learning to enjoy the process transforms challenges into opportunities for growth and innovation. This acceptance is crucial for sustaining self-confidence amidst uncertainty. Ultimately, building and sustaining self-confidence and entrepreneurship demands a focused approach to goal setting and appreciation for the journey's inherent challenges and a steadfast refusal to fall into the comparison trap.

‍

By nurturing self-confidence and viewing the entrepreneurial path through the lens of growth and opportunity, entrepreneurs can navigate their journeys with resilience and purpose. Remember, the true measure of success lies in staying true to your vision. Leverage your unique strengths and embrace the journey’s unpredictability with confidence and determination.