One of the most destructive things I see new sellers do is compare themselves to others.  There’s nothing more deflating after working your butt off to get your first few boxes out of the door than to see a picture like the one below posted on Facebook.

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There are multiple problems for newer sellers or even veteran sellers who maybe aren’t getting this many boxes out.

1. They assume that they are doing something wrong.
2. They assume that the other seller posting the pic is making more money that they are.
3. They try to find out what that seller is doing and don’t realize that it might not work for them.

This is self-defeating thinking as you have no idea how much time the person puts in, how much ROI the person will likely receive, or how much money the person has to work with.

ANYONE could fill 20 boxes if they lowered their ROI standards enough. Maybe the seller found a score of 300% ROI toys, but maybe they’re shipping 2 items in each box with a 20% ROI each. The fact is that you don’t know, so it’s pointless to compare yourself to that seller.

So, what should you do instead? When you see pics like this, use them as motivation. Somewhere people are working harder than you are, so use this as motivation to work harder. Somewhere people have better systems in place than you, so work on building better systems to make your sourcing and shipping more efficient. These are the things you can control. Focus on them.

The only person I compare myself to is me. Am I getting more inventory sent in this month than I did last month (or last year at the same time)? Am I working smarter to make the best use of the time I have? Are there aspects I can outsource that will free me up to do more important tasks?

As long as I am growing month to month and year over year, I’m happy. If you consistently grow your business even 5% per month, that’s 60% growth in a year. Explosive growth is possible in this business, but slow and steady growth is much more common.

In every industry there are superstars who will stand out from the rest. Watch them, learn from them, and implement what you learn as long as it fits your business model and it will help you grow.