One of the biggest issues you are likely to face as an entrepreneur is envy. Entrepreneurship is a roller-coaster ride of emotions. It’s important to overcome negative emotions and encourage positivity. One of the best things you can do for your business is to move beyond envy.
How Envy Holds You Back
First, it’s important to understand how envy holds you back. Are you always looking at other entrepreneurs and wishing you had what they do? You want that win. You wish for that recognition or success.
However, if you just look at other entrepreneurs and all you feel is envy, that can take you down a dark road. Pretty soon it becomes about them. You are no longer focusing on your business. Instead, you are focused on someone else. It can also poison your attitude and lead to negativity and loss. Getting stuck in a spiral of envy can be detrimental and distracting.
You need to move beyond envy if you want to take your business to the next level.
Learn from Others
Rather than seeing others as objects of envy, you should view them as people you can learn from. If you’re jealous of someone else’s success, take a step back. Rather than focusing on the success, and how you wish you had it, look at what they did to get to that point.
See if you can trace the steps they took. Pay attention to their systems and processes and see if you can figure out what they did to create success. Don’t just sit back and envy someone’s success; pay attention and learn from it. Then, you can move forward and create your own success.
Return to Your “Why”
We all have our reasons for starting businesses. It’s important that you return to your own “why” if you want to move beyond envy.
Do you remember why you started the business in the first place? What were you interested in doing? Did you have a mission? Getting caught up in envy can distract you from your original “why.”
Rather than focusing on the external issues related to others and your envy of them, instead focus on your “why.” Remember your mission, look inward. How can you improve your business and your systems so that you are better able to accomplish your “why.” When you get back to that basic reason for your business, it is easier to move beyond envy.
Define Your Own Success
One of the reasons that envy becomes a problem is due to the fact that often we look at someone else and let that be our guide for success. There’s a whole list of things we’re “supposed” to do. We see others doing these things and we assume that they have found success.
However, success looks different for each entrepreneur. Don’t let someone else’s version of success define you. Instead, figure out what would make you feel as though you are achieving your goals and living up to your “why.”
When you do that, you can move beyond envy and enjoy your own successes.
There’s nothing wrong with admiring someone else’s success and striving to be like them. However, you don’t want it to go too far and turn into the type of envy that leads you down a path of negativity.
