They Can't All Be Winners

It’s not healthy to compare your work to someone else’s. There are a whole bunch of reasons to stay away from this - it can knock your self-esteem, push you to imitate their voice and style instead of being an individual, or it can lead to jealousy and resentment.

One of the most pragmatic reasons is that it’s not a fair comparison. We’ve grown used to this with social media. We aren’t seeing the “normal” aspects of someone’s life, only the curated parts that they have decided to share with us. Something similar happens with our work. Someone’s most popular work tends to get an outsized share of the promotion. If you’ve worked hard on something and people have enjoyed it, it’s only sensible to capitalise on that and promote the hell out of it.

Rather than being upset that we haven’t “gone viral” yet, this should be reassuring. Even the most prolific and celebrated writers only have a handful of hits. How many Britney Spears songs can you name? How many Agatha Christie novels? And these are the best of the best! You’re only a few hits away from being a superstar.

Does this mean you shouldn’t put anything out there until you’re sure it’s going to be a hit? Absolutely not. How well do you remember Britney Spears’ Overprotected or Agatha Christie’s The Man With the Brown Suit? That’s not to say that they’re “bad”, but they’re a long way from Toxic or …And Then There Were None. The full back catalogue is still available for the die-hard fans, but for the casual listener or reader, they’ll go for the hits.

You might also want to steer clear of comparing to your own greatest hits. There’s no formula for success. Small changes to the input can have a significant impact on the output. There are so many variables at play, most of them out of your control and even out of sight. Being in the right place at the right time is easier said than done. Your best bet is to keep showing up.

Not every idea is going to be a breakthrough. Eureka moments are rare in practice. Good ideas take time to mull over or to digest. Often you need to rephrase it 10, 20, or even 100 times before it crystallises into some neat form.

It reminds me of those four blind men touching an elephant. You know the idea is there and you can feel a bit of it, but you need to fumble around and approach the idea from all different angles before you can make sense of the whole. Writing out your thoughts can be a great way to expand your understanding. The bits you’re struggling with may be the bits that everyone else is struggling with too.

Is this post going to turn me into the next internet sensation? I doubt it. But I think this idea has legs. If I explore long enough, maybe I’ll discover it has tusks and a trunk too.