Success Pollution

Failure - it’s a favorite word among startup founders everywhere. “Fail fast”, they say.

Entrepreneurs all say they’re open to failure, but deep down, we all want to be the guy who gets it right. The visionary who - in the face of impossible odds and deep pocketed competition - breaks through onto the world stage with a product that changes it all. We compare ourselves to the mega rich & successful. People like Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg. We define success as becoming one of them.

When you choose tier 1 role models you need to be careful not to compare your achievements to theirs. When you do that, you travel down a road that leads to a complete loss of perspective. You lose your ability to celebrate the little wins, and if you’re not careful you’ll end up looking at yourself as a failure if you’re “only” running a $3 million business.

Recognizing our own successes can be a challenge, especially when we’re surrounded by people who are much more successful than we are. But why all the focus on relative successes? What makes it so hard to focus on the areas in which we are successful? Maybe it’s a deep-seated need to constantly advance ourselves - not one step at a time - but radically, and incredibly quickly. Maybe it’s because we’re a bunch of delusional fools who refuse to be satisfied. I think it’s just a small part of an entrepreneurial personality.

The more we appreciate where we are, and the less we pine for billion dollar IPOs, the better off we’ll be. If we get there, then it will be incredible. But if we don’t, we’re still bound to enjoy countless successes and a bounty of personal growth & development along the way.