Hey Reader,

You open LinkedIn and someone’s posted a clean player rating model. Someone else has just landed a role at a club. A third person is at the StatsBomb conference, lanyard round their neck, looking like they belong.

And quietly, you think: everyone’s miles ahead of me.

I get messages like this most weeks. People who feel like the game started without them.

The comparison nobody notices they’re making

Here is what’s actually going on.

You’re comparing your day one to their year one, year two or year three.

What you see is someone who has "made it". The polished model, the job title, the confident post. What you don’t see is the two years behind it. The rejections. The stuff they quit and came back to. The reports nobody read.

You’re measuring your start against someone else’s middle.

I know how this feels because I lived it

My first role in football paid me nothing. So did my second. So did my third.

I quit learning Python three times. Actually gave up, told myself it wasn’t for me, then came back to it months later.

It took me a couple of years to properly change my career. From the outside now, people see the end of that story. They don’t see the bit in the middle where I had no idea if any of it would work.

If I’d spent that time comparing myself to people already inside the game, I’d have talked myself out of it before I got the ball rolling.

Why the comparison is useless

It’s not just that measuring yourself against someone further along is unfair. It’s that it tells you nothing.

It’s a feeling, not information. It doesn’t show you your next move. All it does is quietly stop you. You don’t post the report because someone else’s looks better. You don’t apply because you feel unready next to them.

One of our my Recruitment Room members said something recently that stuck with me. He told me he’d been holding his own scout reports up against another member’s work, someone a good few months further down the road, and feeling like his weren’t good enough.

But that other member was terrified too, not long ago. He’d posted his first report with his hands shaking, the same as everyone does. The person you’re comparing yourself to had their own day one. You just didn’t see it.

The only comparison worth making

For me, the comparison that actually helps is with yourself.

Are you further along than you were three months ago? Do you know something now you didn’t then? Have you put out one more piece of work than last month?

That’s the race. Not them. You, against where you started.

To be honest with you, the people who make it in this game aren’t the ones who felt ready. They’re the ones who kept going while they still felt behind.

Progress is slow, and then it isn’t.

So this week, put out one thing before you feel ready. Then compare it to your last one.

Reach out to 3 new people who already work in football for feedback on your work.

Take action today, even if you don't feel ready

Most people don’t feel behind.

They’re comparing their start to someone else’s middle.

p.s. The Recruitment Room has limited spots left for new members this month. We won't be taking on new members for another 3 months, so now is your time to take action.