"Tobias, always remember - Everyone sits down when taking a shit, just like you. Your teachers, your mentors, and even the president."
— My Mother
This was always a gentle reminder for myself when I was busy putting other people on pedestals. It's a reminder that everyone is human, everyone has the same humble beginnings.
Even though we should know better, we still believe in the "Over night success" myth. We want instant gratification and always seek for the secret recipe of success, but if we already know that it does not exist.
For some reason it's deeply unsatisfying for us to not be able to find the perfect answer when asking someone for their secret of success. Still, we keep asking.
One thing that often helps me to put things into perspective is to look at the beginnings. Look at where things started rather than the final outcome.
Often the secret lies right there, in the beginning that looks a lot like your own beginning of a new project. It's the phase we can all identity with, since very few start with a big bang.
We all know about the crazy "overnight success" of Angry birds. But few know that the three founders built 50+ games and almost went bankrupt. Angry Birds was one of their last attempts to safe the company. Clearly not an overnight success.
Anyone who wants to sell you overnight success or wealth is not interested in
your success; they are interested
in your money.
— Ben Bennett
I always love to look at some of our favorite websites & services and how they looked & worked just 10-20 years ago. It's a simply trick that helps me to put things into perspective.
The humble beginnings often tell us more than a refined product many years later. It helps me reflect on where I am right now with my own projects