This week I saw a tweet by Mike Oliver that stopped my scrolling pretty quickly…
“Maybe someone besides myself needs to hear this. Don’t let the new year put you in a state of panic to scale, crush or 2x last year. Run your own race and stop worrying where everyone else is at.”
As I’ve spent a lot of time with agency owners through TABLE, having deep conversations about their agencies, I’ve come to realize more and more that what an agency is to someone is very personal.
Yes, some people are trying to scale & grow to get to the point where they can remove themselves from the business entirely.
But that’s not true for everyone.
As we get into the new year we see a lot of people sharing their successes from the previous year, and their goals for the current one. And there is value in seeing what others are up to — maybe it’s motivation for you — but comparison is (or at least can be) the death of joy.
If you have had times when you feel like you’re not good enough, or impostor syndrome hits you like a ton of bricks — I can promise you, you’re not alone. I haven’t met a single person yet that hasn’t struggled with the same things. Not one.
“Running your own race”, as Mike put it, is the beauty of owning your own business. Your goals and aspirations are your own, and you get to decide what that looks like. It doesn’t have to be what someone else says is the picture of success (no matter how loudly they talk about it in their YouTube videos).
You don’t need to “beat” anyone else or “win” — just continue pursuing the kind of lifestyle that’s best for you.
Kyle Van Deusen
After spending 15 years as a graphic designer and earning a business degree, I launched my agency, OGAL Web Design, in 2017. A year later, after finding the amazing community around WordPress, I co-found The Admin Bar, which has grown to become the #1 community for WordPress professionals. I'm a husband and proud father of three, and a resident of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
