Are you building a company or cosplaying success for others? Headcount, titles, splashy events, all used to signal that you’re doing good. Like a peacock strutting around, but for no real gain. Hustle till you burn out. Hire till you implode. All… useless. Who are you performing for?

Losing What Matters

In my work, I regularly come across senior leaders who are busy cargo-culting what seems like success, without even realizing that they’re using other people’s metrics. They work incredibly hard even when it’s not really needed. They hired too many engineers because that indicates success to people outside, only to find themselves manufacturing work to keep those engineers busy.

And then they had to hire more managers to oversee all those engineers, implement processes, and review everything. They chase titles and responsibilities they don’t even want to hold. But there’s no reward for pleasing spectators on LinkedIn or Instagram. They won’t really make your business succeed. Why are you throwing away your precious time dancing to someone else’s fiddle?

Make Your Own Scorecard

Life is really too short to waste it doing performative work that doesn’t matter. It sucks all the meaning out of your day-to-day. And those are days you will never get back. Instead, start doing things that matter to you.

The first thing I ask clients when we start working together is whether they’re having fun. Not every moment needs to be fun—otherwise we wouldn’t call it “work.” But as a whole, you should be doing work that makes you feel better and that you’re excited to do.

To decide about the other metrics that you should adopt (or keep)? Ask yourself: would you pursue these goals even if you could not brag about them? Would achieving them by themselves make you content? Not a lot else matters over the course of a good and fulfilling career.

Steal Mine

This is a joke, because you’re supposed to dump others’ metrics! But I will mention them in case it helps you understand better what I’m talking about. My first metric is impact. When clients can describe the positive improvements and the results they see from working with me, and when I can see how much they’ve grown, that’s success for me. It doesn’t have to be with “sexy” logos. It doesn’t have to be done “out loud” (many naturally prefer to keep their struggles private). I care that they see the value of the work we did together.

The other main metric for me is self-growth. Repeating the same boring work, which I can do easily, but without any challenges, just doesn’t cut it. I want to look back at my progress every quarter or so and see the new things I learned and had to work on. I want to step away from a client not only with them being better, but also with myself being better.

You can keep chasing approval from people who don’t matter, or you can build a scoreboard that makes your team dangerous and your customers grateful. Screw others’ metrics. Build something you don’t need to brag about.