How to Stop Comparing Yourself To Other Business Owners
It’s Not a Competition When You’re Focused on Your Own Race
Have you ever noticed the habits of a competitive sprinter after the pistol is fired and they find their way out of the starting block to begin the race? They press their feet on the track, elevate up into an enhanced posture and then place one foot in front of the other as they speed towards the finish line. One thing they never do, if they’re intent on winning THEIR race, is look right, left or behind them. They focus forward, on the road in front of them… They focus on their win.
When you’re intent on winning your own race, you have to develop that same muscle, that same focus, that mental assurance that what is in front of you is far more important than what the people next to you and behind you are doing with their own race. The only person on that track that matters during this moment is you. The only person responsible for getting you to that finish line and all the glory of your hard work is you. So why do people find it so hard when it comes to their business to focus forward and not get caught up in watching their competition?
Because it’s often easier to focus on the perceived effortlessness of how others are winning in your field, then it is to culminate, cultivate and put action behind your own wins. For some, winning is a dream rarely encountered and to others winning is work that is easier to dream about then it is to commit to. But if you want it, then that means not only developing a winning mindset, but also positioning yourself to enter a space where winning can be a possibility for you.
Winning means looking ahead, not looking at what you left behind or at who is running alongside of you. That’s what you do when you’re analyzing a race before you actually hit the track. It’s called competitor analysis and to athletes it’s known as competitive film study. When you’re actively in pursuit of your personal win, you need to proactively shift your attention to how you’re leveling the track and not on how your competitors are handling the same asphalt you’re racing down at the same time. A second or two of diverting your eyes off the road in front of you can cost you your momentum, and in some cases cost you the race.
Here are 3 things to remember that will help you harness your focus as a business owner and enter the entrepreneurial race with your eyes on the journey ahead and not on what’s right and left of you. The win is achievable when your win becomes believable.
1.) It’s Not a Competition, it’s a Personal Race: Don’t get me wrong, when you create a competitive product, you’re most certainly signing up to challenge the market interest of buyers to overlook another brand and buy with you. However, this should not be the single most important motivating factor for why you jumped on the track in the first place. And if it is, then you’re always going to be focused on selling and never maneuvering strategically in a way where your product sells itself without you having to step on the track every day. That’s the difference between a brand and a business. Usain Bolt doesn’t have to run every day for you to know he’s the fastest man on earth. Understanding this distinction is how you know whether or not you’re running in a race vs. chasing your competition.
Remember your why. You didn’t start your business as a means to compete with other business owners, you started this business for freedom, purpose, or to seek personal gratification for something you believe will impact the market in a way that similar products have not. That alone should be all the reason you focus on yourself and your interest and let the competitors be simply competitors. But not the focal point of your drive. If you didn’t start your business to compete with a certain brand, then why invest all your energy into what that brand is doing with their brand. Focus on your harvest.
2.) No One Has the Power to Get You to the Finish Line, But You: I can’t say it enough, it’s your race, hun. It’s time to start acknowledging that your personal impact is the single defining factor to every future outcome you desire. Even when you have allies that help you win a race, it’s still your own feet on the pavement that move the needle from the starting block to the finish line. Letting up to see how much faster Kim the Climber is going or Ray the Rebounder is pushing, could cost you 2 seconds or 2 meters, and that’s a lot when you’re already in a crowded entrepreneurial marketplace. The win goes to the person who has developed a relentless and unforgiving tunnel vision for pushing their goals to the finish line with no room for diverting focus. That’s going to be you, when you realize what you want is just as important, as worthy and as possible as everyone you’ve seen around you that are collecting incremental wins. Today is the day you choose to focus on your wins. Today is the day you chart a course to your own finish line.
3.) Analyze first, then Start Your Race: To often business owners side eye doing competitor analysis before successfully launching their brands. They don’t want to look at what other brands are doing for fear that they’ll see something unsettling that will shift their focus or negatively impact their idea. These are the same people who launch brands without a strategy and then when they’re at a standstill or have hit a wall with their brand efforts, they now want to start actively focusing on what others are doing and what’s been working for them while accepting unnecessary and highly avoidable personal failure. This is the intersection to where many begin to compare, compete, and lose focus on winning their own race.
Competitor analysis is the gateway to know what works for others and drafting a concept that will work for you and for dominating the marketplace with your product. Before any football and baseball greats step out on the field, they already understand the psychology of their competitors; from their strengths, to their weaknesses, and how they can play within those grey areas to create personal wins for themselves and their teammates. You can’t win in business or in sports if you do not know what the market is lacking, where your competition is strong or where they are weak, and how YOUR brand fits perfectly in the middle to offer a new and intriguing message for selling a similar product or service to an already satisfied audience. In order to know how to create a new appetite, you need to understand how others have been quenching those thirsts prior to your arrival. You don’t start asking those questions when you’re already half-way down the track. These are things you need to know before you even offer up your solutions to an audience. If you already know that Lisa the Life Coach always launches an irresistible offer the 4th quarter that dominates a similar audience, then why not come in hot at the end of the third quarter with your product? You could also create something that could feel like a “sister product” to the one she is offering that would massage the idea of a brand collaboration or easily be able to be sold to people who have already invested in her product and now your offer is an added solution to their pain point.
I challenge you, the reader, to draft a plan today for your business that will drive your goals to the finish line. I challenge you to shift your mindset and elevate your posture to center you for your own incremental wins. When you focus forward with a winning strategy, you’re always moving towards your purpose no matter how long it takes you to get there.
