A recent post by Seth Godin talks about comparing yourself to others and the effect that it can have on your growth and development as an individual. All too often, I see this spill over into how advisors run their practices and the decisions that they make as a result of the “compared to” syndrome.

I see this occur with advisors all the time when we work with them in their practice…they talk about how they know of another practice that produces more revenue, has a larger client base, has more AUM, more staff, a shinier office…the list goes on and on with the different “measuring sticks” that I see being used as comparisons.

My usual response to this, though, is “What is your vision and goal for your practice?”

Sometimes being really good at what you have built and “sharpening the saw” that you already have is a better use of your time and more rewarding than trying to continually “build a bigger saw.”

Know what you’re good at, be clear about the vision for your practice, and focus on the essentials to running the type of practice YOU want to have…not the practice that others THINK you should have.