Whether you have a side-hustle, a freelancer, or running your own business, the more time you spend comparing yourself to someone else or their business, the more you set yourself up for failure.

1. There is no benefit to comparing yourself to someone else.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. You are spending precious time devaluing yourself because someone out there is doing something different or better, which is subjective. You start losing confidence and steam in your business because someone has a shinier website or a more extensive client list than you. It’s not a healthy way to start or run a business, you won’t get far, and you will always be playing catch-up. You are creating your own issues out of thin air.

2. Keep doing you; that’s authentic.

The knowledge that you gain from your experiences will always be unique to you. Whether you fail or succeed, there is always a learning lesson, and what you do with it will be different from the next person.

Keep this in mind:

Your thoughts, ideas, and execution is always going to be different. Your perspective is unique.

3. Your competition most likely doesn’t care about you.

Just because you are peeking over the fence to see what your “competitor” is doing, it doesn’t mean they are doing the same thing. In fact, there is a very likely chance that your competition is clueless about you and what you are doing. Sorry to break it to you.

If someone who has had "success" handed you the blueprint of their business and how they got to where they are now. It’s impossible to replicate each step the same way and have the same outcome. So put your head down, get to work, find your niche and execute to the best of your abilities. Most importantly, suck as much knowledge out of it and don’t repeat the same mistakes in the future when you start building your second, third, and fourth business.

Remember: The only secret sauce in business is execution.