Ask HN: How can I stop being jealous of people who succeed before me?
I am a tech entrepreneur. I've dedicated my life to technology and building products that can help people. I'm relatively smart and really hardworking. My success thus far has been modest, though I have been able to raise funding from a prestigious VC firm. My standards are high so I do not consider fundraising any kind of success. I also detest self promotion and so I have not announced the fundraise. My startup feels like it has just recently found product market fit but I'm not sure. Either way I will go for it. The problem is everytime i try to hone in on myself and focus on my goals I hear about someone I know or someone "like me" (i.e. they have similar attributes, aren't friends but are in my peer group, and are working on a similar idea or an idea i've had in the past) whose raised a bunch of money and is all over the press and in some cases has achieved real success. I have this negative feeling for hours, days sometimes that I can only assume is jealousy. Perhaps because I am competitive. Perhaps because in addition to wanting to build products and help people, I am human and I want to be the "first" or the "best" in my peer group. I don't like feeling this feeling though because I know that I genuinely wish this people well and that if i myself were successful I wouldn't feel this way...or maybe I would? I'd love your help and advice on how I can do away with this feeling and focus on being a world class entrepreneur. I am not OK with being OK with failure and I do not accept being mediocre, but there has to be a way of being competitive in a healthy way without having to unfollow every stream of social media from peers that succeed and without having to feel envious of others. Sorry for the long rant but I'd really like to turn the leaf in the new year and I appreciate your help!