What I really don’t like about social media is the constant stream of measurement that they generate. I spend a lot of the time on Twitter inside small bubble of Shopify app developers and bootstrappers. And it’s a constant stream of data for comparison. People share their MRR, new features, new products, and new businesses. And I keep comparing myself with them.

This comparison gives me an ongoing feeling of falling behind. No matter how well I’m doing by my own standards, the internet is huge and I will always find people who are doing better. More productive, more focused, better at marketing, better managers. I’m measuring my results, comparing them to others (often not intentional), and feel that I’m not doing well enough.

But if I look back and remind my thoughts and goals a few years ago, I realize that I’m actually living my dream life right now. I reached my goals and built a lifestyle that I always wanted. I moved to a wonderful country and travel a lot. All while having flexibility on how to spend my time. According to my own standards things are great. Of course, someone on the internet will always do better. But does it really matter? If I’m happy with what I’m doing, find it fulfilling, and have enough time for rich life outside of work - that’s plenty.

Besides, we see only the positive side of people in the internet. Not everyone showing struggles and sacrifices that growing business requires. Moving and growing faster means spending more time on management, making hiring the core skill, spending days in communication and on coordination of work of others. That’s just not kind of activity I want to be doing. I find it more enjoyable to move slower while keeping my team small, and spending most of my time building, not managing.

At the same time, looking at how someone else is doing online can be inspiring. When I was just getting started with Shopify app development, some success stories from Twitter showed me how wide range of possibilities is in the ecosystem. It inspired me to bet on Shopify and pursue the journey of building apps. And I’m very grateful for that. But when it’s time to act, it’s better to stop listening to the noise in social media and listen to yourself.