The Grass Is Always Greener

Studies show we mostly compare ourselves to the people in our closest circles.

Our neighbors — Is their grass looking greener?

Our colleagues — How much is she making?

Our industry — They raised how much? 

We rarely compare ourselves to anything outside our tiny bubble. And it’s here, where we lose perspective. 

Let’s take a startup for example. If you’re not growing 30% month over month or raising money with the goal of being the next billion-dollar unicorn — you’ll be told that you’re not good enough. 

I recently read a slack post, from what I can only imagine to be an outstanding male citizen who stated, “You can’t even consider yourself a startup if you’re not raising funds.” But take one large step outside of the world of venture capital, and a business may not only be good enough, but entirely profitable and worth millions of dollars. 

I’ve experienced the crushing pressure of keeping up in a venture-backed business. Raising a lot of money, hiring a big team, and going after the big dream. There are plenty of other paths startups nowadays can choose to go down. Creating perfectly good and profitable businesses that raise a little, not a lot, hiring a few contractors but not a whole team, and focusing on the quality of the dream not the size of it.

So maybe the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Maybe the grass is always greenest where you water it. 

Comparison has a funny way of warping our perspective of the perfectly good thing we already have.

It took me far too long to realize the environment in which you create a business — who you surround yourself with and how you get capital — matters almost as much as the business itself. Let this be a lesson, “The grass is always greenest where you water it.”

And where you water it matters.