I remember feeling same way when I was 26. I remember envy when I saw a guy who was 23, had his company with many employees, successfully built stuff for the archiving radio broadcasts (which I kind of tried to get into with "company" that we've set up with two of my friends).
To add insult to an insult he was good looking, he was surfing and his website displayed in IE chromeless window which before that I wasn't even aware to be possible. And I though of myself as knowing almost all of the tricks.
The way I removed myself from mentally competing with this guy was thinking that this guy probably had a father, rich one probably, probably entrepreneur while I was raised by single working mom and a grandfather who was a tinkerer.
That softened the blow enough to just work out an acceptance of the fact that, at no fault of mine, world is filled with a lot more awesome people than me. It is. If you are one in a million, there are thousands of people like you or better on this globe.
Now I'm 36 and I'm feeling way better now. After years of bummming around as a lone wolf I got hired by corporation few years ago. It turned out to be much more profitable and way easier than freelancing. I pumped up my self esteem and my account by showing me how high rates I can demand for my work and I stopped feeling pressure to strike gold.
Surely everybody would want to be Marcus Persson but people like him are so lucky that you can't compete with that in any capacity. It's as if you'd compare your salary with somebody's lottery win. "This guy made a 10 million dollars in a day and what I got? Few hundreds?"
If I at any point in my life get this combination of luck, opportunity, skill and time to launch me way above everything I could build myself then great. If not ... that's perfectly fine. I'm perfectly satisfied with gradually moving towards places that earn me more and bore me less and in the off time playing with whatever I find interesting without thinking whether it's profitable in any way or not.
On more practical note... Try to pick jobs that pay the most. Try to stay on those jobs only as long as you are surrounded by the people you learn from and you are forced to learn. But avoid long hours.
You'll notice that that your brain will be more awake. Instead of watching TV or reading internet you'll be prototyping new technology in your free time, just because you'll feel like it.
If you start getting bored you'll see yourself to be doing in your free time more and more mindless things. Most mindless is TV so the only way you can go from where you are is up.
To add insult to an insult he was good looking, he was surfing and his website displayed in IE chromeless window which before that I wasn't even aware to be possible. And I though of myself as knowing almost all of the tricks.
The way I removed myself from mentally competing with this guy was thinking that this guy probably had a father, rich one probably, probably entrepreneur while I was raised by single working mom and a grandfather who was a tinkerer.
That softened the blow enough to just work out an acceptance of the fact that, at no fault of mine, world is filled with a lot more awesome people than me. It is. If you are one in a million, there are thousands of people like you or better on this globe.
Now I'm 36 and I'm feeling way better now. After years of bummming around as a lone wolf I got hired by corporation few years ago. It turned out to be much more profitable and way easier than freelancing. I pumped up my self esteem and my account by showing me how high rates I can demand for my work and I stopped feeling pressure to strike gold.
Surely everybody would want to be Marcus Persson but people like him are so lucky that you can't compete with that in any capacity. It's as if you'd compare your salary with somebody's lottery win. "This guy made a 10 million dollars in a day and what I got? Few hundreds?"
If I at any point in my life get this combination of luck, opportunity, skill and time to launch me way above everything I could build myself then great. If not ... that's perfectly fine. I'm perfectly satisfied with gradually moving towards places that earn me more and bore me less and in the off time playing with whatever I find interesting without thinking whether it's profitable in any way or not.
On more practical note... Try to pick jobs that pay the most. Try to stay on those jobs only as long as you are surrounded by the people you learn from and you are forced to learn. But avoid long hours.
You'll notice that that your brain will be more awake. Instead of watching TV or reading internet you'll be prototyping new technology in your free time, just because you'll feel like it.
If you start getting bored you'll see yourself to be doing in your free time more and more mindless things. Most mindless is TV so the only way you can go from where you are is up.