Looking at what others are doing, is pointless. Start the you vs. you game.
Let’s take the inventor, James Dyson.
He had an idea for a new type of vacuum cleaner, but he didn’t look at what his competition had built or was building. It took him over 6,500 tweaks to get it how he wanted it.
Even after he launched the product, he didn’t market it like his competitors.
He’s changed an industry.
Yes, you still need to compete.
It’s not with who you think it is, it’s not your competition.
But compare yourself with you 6 months ago. Yesterday you!
Spying On Your Competition
Let’s keep looking at it from a business point of view for a second.
Many software services have been built that will help you spy on what other businesses are doing.
And I don’t know if it’s the fault of all the so-called “MBA” degrees.
But the common wisdom. When you’re launching something to the world. Is to do competitor research to help you come up with a business plan.
Read their bad reviews so you know what to build or how to deliver a product or service.
Use Facebook’s Ad Library to see what ads they are running. Find the best ones and then “mirror” the ads.
Look at what blogs they’ve written. Find the top ones and make a “better” version of each.
The list is endless.
But this is a waste of your time.
You Don’t Know What They Know
There are a lot of problems with this.
So much of what’s got them to where they are is hidden.
Has the founder(s) been in that industry for a long time? What customer base do they, or did they already have? Is their domain knowledge huge and impossible to replicate if it’s only you?
Then you don’t know what resources they have.
Are they VC-backed? Do they have a lot of funding or money from other sources?
What team size do they have? And what resources have they got that you don’t?
If it’s only you, or a few of you, and you’re in the early days.
You’re already at a disadvantage in a lot of ways.
And “mirroring” what they are doing intensifies that.
You need to do what you can with the resources and knowledge that you have.
You Get “Influenced”
During the lockdown of 2020. When we couldn’t do much, go anywhere. I decided to launch another project.
It’s a mobile app for fishermen. I named it BAITCAMP.
I validated the idea by asking people on Reddit and Facebook what they thought about my idea.
Also, I looked to see if there are similar apps that exist already.
But that’s where I then stopped.
Oh, if you want to find out how I think about new business ideas, check out how I develop the initial version of a product here.
All I wanted to do was to see if there was a big enough market for what I wanted to build. That others, potential competitors existed, and that they were making money.
That’s it.
I didn’t look at their website. Or their marketing. And I’ve never downloaded or installed one of my competitors’ apps. I don’t even look at screenshots or preview videos.
Why? I hear you ask.
Because I don’t want to be influenced.
This is one of the major problems with competitor research. More so if you are a builder.
Your subconscious and conscious mind will soak up what you’ve seen, what they are doing.
When you then come to create something. It will start to look, feel, and behave like what you’ve researched.
It doesn’t become something of value.
That thing becomes a poor imitation of what you’re competitor has done.
Worse still. It won’t be something you’re proud of. And that can make a massive difference to a project.
Don’t Become A “Cheap Knockoff”
I remember about the age of 7 or 8. My Dad took me to a Rolls Royce Motor Car exhibition. That was on, in my home town.
And I fell in love with the cars.
I had a poster of a Rolls Royce Corniche II on my wall for over a decade.
It’s funny how life pans out too.
I did a work placement for 12 months as part of my University Degree. One of the jobs advertised. Yep, you guessed it, was to work at the new factory, to work for Roll Royce Motor Cars.
I only got the fucking job.
WILD!
To see how they built the cars. To get to drive one was a dream come true.
Where am I going with this?
Well shortly after finishing the work placement. I saw an article. About how Chinese car companies. Where making cheaper versions of popular car brands and models.
One was of a Rolls Royce.
And it looked awful.
Why?
Because it wasn’t a Rolls Royce.
They weren’t trying to figure it out. It was a copy and a poor one at that. There was zero creative process.
And you don’t want to fall into this trap.
Create what you want to see in the world. Using your skills, knowledge, experience and worldview.
Not to photocopy someone else.
You Can Never Win A Comparison Game
This becomes a problem with competitor research.
Or looking at what others are doing. Looking at their successes.
You start to compare yourself to them.
And the problem with this is you start playing a game you can NEVER win. You can’t beat them at being them.
That’s one of the biggest problems with the modern world is this never-ending comparison game.
Social Media Encourages Mindless Comparison.
People talk about the mindless scrolling on social media.
What about the mindless comparison that goes on?
I wish I had his biceps and abs. If only I had her tits and ass.
Wow, look at the cars they’re driving. The plane they’re flying in. How much money they’re making? What house they’ve moved into? The list and the game goes on and on.
But you only see 1% of their life.
The bits they want you to see.
You then compare yourself to these snapshots. And feel like shit, when you feel like you’re behind somehow. But what are you not seeing?
What do they do that you wouldn’t, can’t, do not want to do?
You want to “beat” someone, or have the same level of “success” by being like them. Worse still, being a better version of them, not you.
It doesn’t matter if that’s a business you want to launch. The shape you want to get in. How you want to dress and present yourself.
By comparing yourself to someone or something else.
Well, you’ve already lost!
So, what’s the answer?
It’s You vs. You
What I’ve been finding is that the comparison game can be useful.
But only if you compare yourself to you.
Here are two ways I’ve started playing the comparison game against myself.
You vs. You of Yesterday
At its core, this is about getting better every single day.
Stacking things on top of each other.
Call it skill stacking. Or use James Clear’s get better 1% every day. Or the Japanese word of “kaizen” meaning continuous improvement.
It doesn’t matter what frame you use.
You can compare yourself to you of yesterday.
Are you sticking to the plan? Doing what you said you would do? Learning, growing. Trying new things. Practising the things you enjoy doing?
Let’s take a fitness example.
Did you go to the gym yesterday?
Yes? Great, let’s build on that by going again today. And improve on something that compliments the effort from yesterday.
No? OK, let’s head to the gym today and do something. 1 is greater than zero. So let’s start.
Ask yourself “Did I make progress with a ‘thing'”?
If not, what can I do today, that is different from yesterday that may help me progress?
I’ve built myself a habit tracker to make sure I’m sticking to what I said I’d do. And to play this you vs. you game each day.
You can download a copy of the tracker for free here.
Look At You of 6 Months Ago
A lot of the time. We don’t see how far we’ve come in this you vs. you game.
We don’t review how much progress we’ve made. Only look at the fact we aren’t where we want to be.
That’s why looking back 6 months, 3 months, even a week is so useful.
I’m trying to grow my audience on social media.
So, every Monday, I look across the platforms that I want to grow on and record my follower count per platform for that day. The spreadsheet then calculates by what percentage my audience has grown, or shrunk.
Last week could have felt like a slog.
But you could have made leaps forward. You don’t know unless you look back.
Another thing I want to do. Is to grow my net worth, my wealth.
So every 3 months, I calculate my current net worth in a worksheet.
Then, once I have that amount. I record the amount in another worksheet, with the date. Again calculating how much it’s gone up by and the percentage it’s grown.
The same with my weight, my waist size. The last time I drank. All sorts of things.
“You can only manage what you measure”.
But you can only see how far you’ve come if you review your progress.
Compare Yourself To The Future You
Comparing yourself to your future self sounds confusing.
And it isn’t a direct you vs. you thing.
Let me explain.
I heard a phrase from the comedian Jimmy Carr. A question that he asks himself.
“What can I do today, that I of tomorrow will thank me for”.
That’s powerful.
It makes you do things you may not want to do. Also, stops you from doing something for a short-term “reward”.
What can you do today that will make tomorrow easier for you? And carry that on indefinitely.
Another good tip I’ve seen from a few people. Is that they talk to their older self. The 85-year-old version of themselves.
They talk about how the older you thanks you for what you are doing, or going to do today.
It doesn’t matter what that is. It’s more than likely something from one of the 3 eternal categories. Health, wealth and relationships.
But whatever that difficult thing is. Or what you’re putting off.
There’s a version of you. An older version that will benefit from you doing said thing.
Again, this is powerful.
So all told.
The best thing you can do is to be competitive with yourself. On short timescales, review your progress as you go. And with future you in mind as well.
Conclusion: You vs. You.
Looking at competitors or what others are doing is pointless.
You won’t have the insights, knowledge, resources, perspective. Or the life experience that they have. So you won’t be able to completely copy what they are doing.
And if you can. It will be a poor version of what they’ve created.
This leads down a slippery slope to the “comparison game”. A game you can never win.
So what’s the answer?
You need to focus on what you can create.
Compare yourself to you of yesterday. It’s a you vs. you game.
Start compounding little wins every day. Then in 3 or 6 months. Look back at how far you’ve come.
Also, do things that you of tomorrow will thank you for. That the old-aged version of you is grateful that you did it.
That sticking to the plan. Reviewing progress is the only comparison game you should be playing.
P.S. Don’t forget. If you want to start stacking wins daily. Grab a copy of my free habit tracker that will help you get started.
