Episode 339. Clap for others until it’s your time
This episode of The Art of Entrepreneurship is for founders who catch themselves comparing their year two to someone else's year thirteen.
This is episode three of eight in my lessons to live by series, and today's lesson is about comparison: not how to stop doing it, but how to survive it. Ask most people and they'll say they don't compare themselves to others that much. Almost everyone is lying, mostly to themselves: it happens constantly, from a friend's magazine feature to someone else's funding round or fifteen-person team.
It got strange when founders started comparing themselves to me, messaging that they didn't know how I do it, because they were looking at year thirteen and measuring their year two against it with no visibility into the anxious nights and financial statements that built it. The moment I could see how unfair that comparison was, I had to admit I do the exact same thing to people ten years ahead of me with a completely different life.
I walk through the specific comparisons that have stolen my own joy: to other successful female entrepreneurs; to the startup crowd that seemed effortlessly connected while I cried in bathrooms at networking events; and to other mothers, over the guilt of building a company instead of pouring everything into my kids.
My reframe is a mantra: I'll clap for others until it's my time. It lets you be genuinely happy for someone without it costing you anything, and quietly assumes your own time is still coming. I also get practical about identifying your specific comparison triggers, whether that's an account, a conference or a person, and why muting them is sometimes the healthier move than trying to out-discipline the spiral.
Tune in if you're ready to trade comparison for a mindset that assumes your time is still coming.
If you like this episode, here are some others you'll enjoy.
Episode 338. If not this, then something better — Why closing one door makes finding something better your assignment.
Episode 337. You don't get what you don't ask for — Why hoping isn't a strategy; asking is.
Episode 114. Overcoming imposter syndrome — The flip side of comparison: doubting you belong at all.
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