This page is part of the MAQTOOB Heritage archive. The essay described here appeared on MAQTOOB for Entrepreneurs, the Medium publication run by this domain’s original team between 2015 and 2018. The current site is under new, independent ownership and is not affiliated with the original company or the essay’s author. We keep this record because other sites still link to the essay at this address.
What the Essay Said
This essay argued that comparing yourself to other people is a losing game, and that the useful comparison is against your own past self and your own goals. One of its examples gave it a long afterlife: Benjamin Franklin, who reportedly kept a daily tally of how many of his personal goals he met, most of them about temperance and virtue rather than achievement.
That example is why the essay is still cited. Tony Robbins’ site links to it in its own guide on the same subject, and self development writers borrowed the Franklin illustration for years.
Where the Original Went
The author later deleted the essay from Medium, and no complete public archive of it survives. We keep this record because established sites, including tonyrobbins.com, still link to it at this address.