Today’s daily comes from a post by April Dunford, one of the best experts in positioning for product and b2b companies and author of Obviously Awesome and Sales Pitch.
The core of it? Comparing your start to someone else’s mid-journey (bolding mine).
—-
I had a call with a product marketing consultant today, and it was a little bit heartbreaking.
She’s worked in-house for eight years; she’s been consulting for six months. She told me she feels like a failure. Her big question was, “Why doesn’t my business look like yours?”
I worked for 25 years in-house. I’ve refined what I do across 250ish workshops. I’m OLD – like seriously, really frikkin old. My consulting business looked stupid six months into it. I’ve been doing this full-time for eight years.
LinkedIn lies to people starting out. A great business doesn’t happen overnight. Never compare the beginning of your journey to the end of someone else’s. Eight years from now, she will have a business twice as good as mine. And I will be fully shifted into old-lady gear, which in my plan doesn’t include a whole lot of paid work (if I’m lucky enough not to be dead at that point).
Here’s me on stage at a conference that wouldn’t have had me speak on stage when I was just six months into this. Your time is coming soon enough – just not instantly. You are all doing just fine – you are killing it, in fact.
—-
If it feels like you’re starting, it’s maybe because you are. And if you’ve been some time into it, there are always people who can help you.
If you’re in this last group, just hit reply, tell me what you’re struggling with and I’ll see if I can help or who to refer you to. 🙂
After all, it is all about you. 🙂