3 Reasons Why You Must Ignore Your Competition

Focus on your company

We all tell the story we want other people to hear. When we write the “about us” page, we talk about the things that will promote our business and showcase our credibility. But even if the “about us” story is totally authentic, it’s never the full story.

I talk to individual entrepreneurs every day. Everyone knows that entrepreneurship is hard, but we’re out there every day trying to show the world that we’ve got it handled.

Then other entrepreneurs read the advice and stories of others and it seems like everyone else is further along. We compare ourselves to other entrepreneurs so then we feel bad that we’re not doing all of those things that others are. And then, to put the pin in the cushion of our already precarious egos, someone comes along with unsolicited advice.

Sure, sometimes we speak on panels or write articles about the struggle. We share memes like this one that I reshared the other day, but then we go back to trying to show our clients, our employees, and our investors that we’ve got it all under control. We know what we’re doing, we’re gaining traction, making money, and everything is fine. But even if all of those things are true, there are always more truths than just one.

For every entrepreneur’s success story, there are thousands of other parts to it that we don’t know. We want to put everything together in a shiny package because we want it to make sense. But, like life, business is messy.

We read the “about us” stuff and we started wishing we were better. That we were further along. That we had more of what we wanted.

So stop! Stop judging yourself and your competition. And stop comparing your entrepreneurial journey to anyone else’s.

Here are 3 reasons why you must stop comparing yourself to them and start ignoring your competition.

Comparing doesn’t get you far

I wish we could stop comparing ourselves to other entrepreneurs. We hear the advice to stop comparing ourselves to others in life but then we’re taught that in business we need to learn the competition.

I disagree.