Show Notes:

Outpace the imitators. “If somebody starts copying you — perhaps the way your website is designed, your colors, your fonts, your marketing message — you have a couple of options. You can have this emotional, visceral reaction of saying, ‘How could they do this? I’m going to make them pay!’ so you reach out to business lawyers to start a litigation or send them a cease and desist, and you’re welcome to do that. Then there’s option number two: you can just get better. What I have learned is that those who are copying you are never the ones that are innovating or leading, and by the time that they’ve copied you — so long as you’ve not had your last great idea — you’re further ahead and onto the next great thing. You should always be iterating, innovating, and improving.”

Embrace your haters. “Haters are really just confused admirers. When you’re doing something differently, it’s bringing about some sort of criticism because you stepped outside the norm. If you don’t want criticism, then do nothing, be nothing, and say nothing. You could just blend in with the furniture if you’d like, and you can avoid all criticism, but then you’re never going to achieve your goals and you’re never going to achieve any significant amount of success.”

Success is the best revenge. “I think that if you really want to get even with someone — if you’re one of these types of people that really just wants to take souls and make your competitors very, very, very unhappy and miserable — just be successful. Nothing will make somebody even more unhappy and dissatisfied than seeing you succeed, and that’s the single best thing you can do.”

Thank your critics. “If you’re getting criticism, you’re probably doing something right and you’re probably leveling up in some way. As you continue to level up, you’re probably going to get more of it, so get used to it. That said, use that criticism as fuel to improve and focus on your own business, your own team, and how you can serve your clients and ultimately make a greater impact. If you do it that way, it’s very productive. Then one day, you can write handwritten thank you notes to all your critics.”

Compete with yourself. “Comparison truly is a thief of joy if you’re playing that game. You need to recognize that this is all a game of your choosing and you decide in terms of if you’re constantly going to be comparing yourself to somebody else. If you’re trying to keep up with the Joneses, this is going to be a recipe for dissatisfaction. It’s one thing to leverage that sense of comparison in a way that inspires you to do greater work and keeps you from being complacent, where you always want to do better and you want to improve — but that only really works, at least in the long term, if you’re measuring against yourself and you’re trying to achieve your full potential.”

Find inspiration, not excuses. “For every person you see out there that you believe has some sort of reason or excuse that they are more successful than you, there’s another person who had much less than you that did achieve even more. Start looking at it that way and get inspired when you see people actually achieving things, creating things, innovating, growing, and developing. Respect the process because that’s not easy to do. If you’ve ever done it yourself, you understand the trade-offs, the stress, and the problem-solving that’s required in that and realize that somebody else is overcoming those challenges themselves, especially as they continue to level up. Instead of looking at it from the standpoint of thinking, ‘I’m inadequate,’ be inspired and say, ‘If they can do it, I can do it.’ Start doubling down on yourself and your own skills and capabilities. Also recognize that the grass isn’t always greener. Sometimes you don’t know what’s really going on in that law firm or in that other person’s life, and if you actually knew, chances are you probably wouldn’t trade places with them.”