“The person who won does he have two heads?”

“When your elder sister was your age…”

How often have we heard these phrases growing up? They echo the well-meaning yet misguided notion that comparison is a motivational tool.

There is a popular saying ‘Comparison is the thief of time’ which implies that the more effort you put into looking at and analyzing what everyone else is up to the less time you have to put in any work to better yourself. There’s another popular saying ‘Time is money’. This one tells us that since time is crucial to making money, wasting time is equivalent to losing earnings. Now if comparison is the thief of time and time is money that leads us to the conclusion that comparison also steals wealth.

But how does that happen?

Growing up in society it becomes normal to track development by paying attention to what is common among peers. There is an unwritten rule that governs the stages of people’s lives: It tells us that a child should start walking just before the first birthday and that sometime between age 5 and 6 their milk teeth should fall out. These timelines define our relationship with progress, when something happens a little too early or too late we often assume negative conditions. While it is wise to be safe the truth is that most times these little differences are just expressions of our uniqueness.

identify your strength

The society we live in hardly accommodates differences. The systems in place are designed for mass conformity and that is why we so often hear encouragement of comparison. Many times when society tries to cite someone as an example rather than making them a model they present them as a standard which lays the foundation for constant comparison.

I was constantly taught as a child that I couldn’t be sleeping when my mates were burning the midnight oil. So I had to wake up and read at night. That method was counterproductive because I was usually groggy and couldn’t assimilate well and I also couldn’t get enough sleep which was a loss on both ends. Even though I knew that reading at night was making my academic performance worse, I still stuck to that method for years because I felt since it was working for other people then I just wasn’t doing enough to see better results.

It was years later before I finally figured out that my best time of assimilation was post afternoon nap.  Because I allowed myself to be compared to my peers I suffered through years of poor academic performance until I made the decision to work at my pace and by my customized system.

In the same way when people compare their progress in career, business or wealth building journeys it often leads to making wrong decisions in order to catch up.

Here’s a thought: you don’t need to catch up. It is true that life is a race but the misconception comes when we believe that we are all running the same race in different lanes when in fact we are all running several different races on different tracks simultaneously.  Comparison erases that unique quality that is so often the leverage for wealth. Nigerian comedian, AY who built a successful career from talking once said in an interview that his teachers at school believed his biggest problem was talking too much. 

The compounding cost of comparison

There are many other success stories that validate the conclusion that comparison is the thief of wealth. When we spend our energy trying to match someone else’s pace, we often overlook the unique advantages we possess. Think about it – while you’re busy trying to replicate someone’s path to success, you might be ignoring the very thing that could set you apart. That casual hobby you enjoy? It could be your million-dollar idea. Your seemingly unrelated experiences? They might give you a fresh perspective that nobody else has. The time you spend comparing yourself to others is time stolen from discovering and developing your unique edge.

charting your own course to wealth

The real secret to building wealth isn’t about keeping pace with others – it’s about finding your rhythm and staying true to it. Just as I discovered my optimal study time was after an afternoon nap, your path to success might look different from everyone else’s. Maybe you’re not ready to start that business right now, and that’s okay. Perhaps you need more time to learn, save, or build relationships. That’s not falling behind – that’s being strategic with your personal timeline.

Remember, wealth isn’t just about accumulating money . So when we say comparison is the thief of wealth understand that it steals your ability to build something sustainable that aligns with who you are. When you free yourself from the burden of comparison, you can focus on what truly matters: creating value in your own unique way, at your own unique pace. After all, the race you’re running is yours alone, and the only person you need to outperform is who you were yesterday.

Bravewood provides Nigerian professionals with low-risk, high-return investment products, licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria.