Your Worst Enemy - Comparing Yourself to Others

Yesterday, my daughter had some pictures taken for a project she is working on and had some fun with a make up artist who was also there. Quite a thrill for a 13 year old!


Iris, the make up artist had a recent copy of one of the fashion magazines, (I think it was Vanity Fair) and it featured Sharon Stone. Iris was laughing and commenting on the magic of "airbrushing" because in the photos, Sharon is flawless and well into her 50's. Wrinkle free, perfect in every way and drop dead gorgeous.


Iris recently saw her at some event and said she looks terrible in real life. Dark bags and circles under her eyes, a few age spots and lots of wrinkles. Now, I'm not dissing on Sharon by any means, but the discussion made me think about things we all do in real life and in business.


We compare ourselves to others, in many cases, comparing ourselves to others without even sort of knowing if it's apples to apples or apples to oranges.


I watch my daughter struggling with this with girls at school; I watch my friends struggle with it regarding weight, wrinkles and aging; and I see many network marketers struggle with it when they believe their business is growing more slowly than others; that others have it easier.


Comparison is always a dangerous thing. Most of the time, things are not quite what they seem, as we know from the covers of fashion magazines. Airbrushing goes on in real life and in business, too.


We see fast starters seemingly shoot to the top of companies; we see people rewarded with bonuses greater than ours; we see names grace the top sponsor lists; and we look at ourselves and ask "Why not me? What is wrong with me?"


Here is a survival tip for this business and life in general - Stop Comparing Yourself to ANYONE. Compete only with yourself and your own personal best.


It's easy to look at Sharon Stone on the cover of the magazine and think how nice for her that she has bypassed all aging that goes along with being 50 plus years old. We look at a fast starter and think that he/she must know some special skill or have some secret; his/her friends must like him/her better.


Here's the thing - there is most always a story behind the story; the one that you and I never see.


Models and actors have the benefit of airbrushing; and most fast starters have a success story from before, that we don't know about and don't take the time to research. Top income earners in Network Marketing pay their dues somewhere; ask any top income earner. And, everyone's life circumstances are different.


Some people have a $500 monthly budget with which to run their business, and assuming they invest is wisely and take action on it, they will likely have faster results than the person spending $25. The person who makes their list of everyone they know; send out the friends and family letter; drops off a packet and some products to sample; hosts a BOSS or networks the business in some way consistently will have better and faster results than the person who gets out into cold market right away.


We all have a learning curve and a process to go through in business success. Sharon Stone paid her dues as a starving actress for years and today is paid very well; and can afford to be airbrushed! We didn't see her in those early days, facing rejection after rejection. We look at her now and think - wow, what a life!


Listening to Jan Ruhe this morning reminded me about what it takes to pay one's dues. She did not have immediate success and yet is a millionaire today. Jordan Adler of Beach Money invested THOUSANDS of dollars and talked to lots of people for over TEN YEARS and had no success in Network Marketing. Today, he is a millionaire.


If you compare yourself to either of those two today, you might feel badly for the rest of the day; think it can't happen for you. However, if you can flash back and make that comparison to either of them in year one, year two, or in some cases, year ten, you might feel VERY good about yourself and where you are.


Compare yourself today to the action steps you took yesterday. How do you feel about that? What can you improve upon?


To quote Eleanor Roosevelt - "You must do the thing you think you cannot do." And, to add to it - "Over and Over again until your results shoot you to the moon!"


I'll see you there!


Expect Success!

Jackie Ulmer

-----===(*)===-----