Why Comparison is Good for Your TpT Store

"You shouldn't compare yourself to others", they say. "You'll get discouraged."

You should be careful, but never compare? That's stifling so many learning opportunities.

There are many groups and forums where the admins won't allow teacherpreneurs to post their income or concrete successes. While that makes sense on one level, there is so much we can learn from each others numbers.

How can we learn and improve without sharing hard facts? Here are 4 reasons we should try to be mentally and emotionally stronger when others are celebrating a win.

Comparison Allows You to Learn Where You Can Go

When you first start on TpT, you set personal goals based on hopes and dreams. But, as your store grows, you learn to track data, evaluate your statistics, and set goals based on facts and data.

Then you see someone post that they sold a high dollar product, reached a milestone, were featured in a newsletter, or created and sold a course, you realize the possibilities.

Your brain goes, "Oh! That’s cool. I think I could do something like that.” (Or, it should think that and not something discouraging.)

If you are the type of person that seeks approval or validation, this may be hard for you to watch. You might feel like you could never do that, but try to see this from a possibilities and learning standpoint.

If it weren’t for these sellers with mega successes, we would have no idea what we could achieve. Who knew you could make a million dollars selling pdfs? How cool is that?

So when people discourage comparison, I get frustrated.

Compare your store to another store. In a way that’s looking at a treasure map. Not like I compare chocolate chip cookies to pick the biggest one.

Use someone else’s success as a pathway, not a measuring stick. They’ve given you the gift of showing you where you can end up.

Comparison Allows You Learn From Others

You can learn by studying other’s paths and evaluating their successes. Someone else’s TpT success is like an experiment that worked. Now you need to find out the factors to make it reproducible.

If you compare the right way, you will learn.

Noticing that another seller does something better than you can lead to improving your store.

"What could I do to my covers to make them as appealing as those? That seller’s titles are catchy. How can I make mine more interesting?" (Use others for inspiration not copynpastion.)

Use someone else’s success as a learning tool, not as a reason to degrade yourself.

Comparison Allows You to Be Motivated

It is so refreshing to see how someone came up with a new idea, implemented it, and was successful. Sometimes people even say that it took several tries to figure the new idea out.

All of that is great! It should motivate us to try new things, not be afraid of failing, and show us success is an option!

Use someone else’s success to motivate yourself. Find a successful seller you admire and study their strategies, plans, and successes. You can even reach out and ask questions. Many sellers are very helpful to fellow coworkers.

Comparison Allows You to Be Grateful

Comparison should make us grateful, not jealous. We have blogs, friends, Facebook groups, Instagram friends, and so many places where we can learn from each other.

When someone posts about their success, join me in being grateful to share in their success and learning from it.

Without these friends and online coworkers we would not have all these incredible possibilities in front of us.

One last thought. Next time someone posts about a success, I want you to tell them thanks for blazing the trail for the rest of us and allowing us to learn from their success.