It’s common to want to emulate those who we look up to. We hear the success stories of other business tycoons and think ourselves, “If I can just do that, I will experience the same success they enjoy.”
The fallacy is that we are comparing our beginning to their middle.
We are privy only to curated snippets of their life or third-party reports of how they operate. In reality, we miss out on the context of what has lead them to where they are now. From the mountain base, we see them at the summit. We didn’t see the arduous journey to the top. We see what they are doing now, not what they did to get there.
When we hear that the top entrepreneur who works 18 hours a day, or gets up at 3 AM, or has forgone a personal life, we are tempted to copy their habits to copy their success.
We think if we can just hustle more, get up earlier, work later, write more, run further, skip that personal commitment, or compromise your values just this one time, that we can be more like that hero.
Comparison is the thief of joy. It does not give us latitude to enjoy our own process. Instead, it stucks us into a “Me Too!” mentality, where we are always aiming for second place.
Copying bad behavior doesn’t get you ahead, it puts you behind.
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Photo by Ashley Knedler on Unsplash