The Curse of Competitive Comparisons

Yesterday I was browsing through the Gumroad guides. Gumroad is sort of a HappyLetter competitor in that they enable independent creators to create a market to sell their creations.

Gumroad does a lot of neat things. As was reading all about them I started getting the cursed feelings of inadequacy. I’ve been here before. It usually happens right before I’m about to launch (or put off a launch) of something new. I’d say it is the most dangerous of all the project-eating beasts you’ll encounter in the swamps.

My knee jerk reaction to seeing all the cool stuff that competitors are doing is to immediately beef up my roadmap and try to add some of the stuff that I like best. I’ve been down this road enough times to realize this is purely an emotional reaction and is downright destructive.

You see, I have paying customers… But they aren’t normal paying customers. My customers love what HappyLetter is and what it stands for. They signed up for HappyLetter to earn a few bucks from their writing and build a stronger relationship with their readers who love them and what they stand for.

I’m lucky that I set an insane deadline and launched something that was slightly embarrassing. Otherwise, the competitive comparison anxiety might have gotten the best of me. And my customers are lucky it didn’t. They are already collecting hundreds of dollars per month for their writing.

If I ignore my customers and start building features based on what makes me feel better instead of things that my customers tell me they need to be more successful, I’m a fool.

My job is to listen to my customers and let them tell me what they need to be more successful. This job will change as the service evolves, but for now I am a calm and rational listener. I am not an impulsive competitive researcher.