Hey y’all,
I want to apologize for missing a week.
I wrote a letter I didn’t love and didn’t send. I debated writing another one on Sunday when I decided I didn’t like what I had, but it would’ve been rushed, and rushed letters suck. Especially because I write best with a little something onboard, and it was not a Sunday funday. Gotta start the week strong.
So yeah, you were deprived of a letter. That one’s on me. Apologies.
But we’re back now; on to the good stuff!
The vast majority of people evaluate themselves through comparison, measuring their lives against others: friends, family, coworkers, bosses, celebrities, etc. These are dumb-ass metrics. You are all on different paths. Maybe marginally different. Maybe completely different.
It doesn’t matter.
It’s not about when you start, it’s about the fact that you started.
It’s not about how fast you progress, it’s about the fact that you’re progressing.
It’s not about who’s better, it’s about the fact that you’re getting better.
I do want to caveat this by saying: this is not easy.
I struggle with it all the time. The teammates who ran circles around me when I played sports. Friends who went to better colleges. People my age who’ve already built wildly successful companies. Dozens of comparison traps I still fall into from time to time.
It’s a hard habit to break, but I’m working on it every day, and you should too. Make that the goal.
The older you get, the more obvious it becomes how much shit just doesn’t matter. Your grades don’t matter. Your college barely matters. If you’ve got hustle and went to a state school, you’ll beat a nepobaby from Brown at any company worth working for.
It doesn’t matter if you were a nerd, jock, theater kid, geek, etc. It only matters what and who you like. For the record, I held all of those titles at one point or another. I got great grades, I was captain of multiple soccer teams, I was in musicals and plays, and I loved video games.
And if you’re still in the thick of it, ride it out. Find your people.
But you do have to try a little, at the bare minimum. You will never make friends sitting alone in your room doom-scrolling.
Not to go on a tangent, but social media might be one of the worst things to ever happen to kids. Probably ever. I’d give my kid unlimited beers before I gave them unlimited Instagram. It’s a brutal toxin.
Life is hard. I’ll never deny that. But it’s also beautiful, and fun as hell, if you let it be. Don’t obsess over what someone else is doing “better.” Don’t stress about who’s “ahead” of you. Just go out and get after it. Grab life by the balls and run with it. Life is meant to be lived by your standards, not everyone else’s.
I’m always a call away if you want to talk about life, love, work, or just shoot the shit. If you don’t have my number, that’s actually incredible, it means this letter is getting out there. Shoot me an email and I’ll send it to you. I’d genuinely love to hear about you and yours.
Life is fucking incredible. Don’t waste it comparing yourself to people who are probably miserable anyway.
And as always, tell your people you love them. No one says it enough.
Love,
Mack
Disagree with me in the comments.