Do you celebrate your victories? How?

This is kind of a mindset-type topic. I realized after I wrote it that it probably only applies to solo founders, but I think that’s probably most of us.

Today I was re-watching a Jim Rohn video today where he mentioned celebrating your achievements. I think it’s a good idea to celebrate your achievements because it gives you a boost of motivation and it reminds you that the work is worth it.

Here’s how I’ve been celebrating my victories lately:

  • Put up a Facebook status about it, tweet about it
  • Post about it here
  • Say to “good job” to myself inside my head
  • Tell my wife, who musters up as much pretend caring as she can about my PPC campaigns, etc.

I appreciate the pats on the back I get from these (especially from the people here), but somehow these “celebrations” fall short of what I think a celebration should be, even a small one.

So do you guys celebrate your victories, and if so, how? Does it feel satisfying?

BTW, there’s also the weirdness of accomplishing something like earning $15K+ in a month of freelancing. I can’t shout that kind of accomplishment from the rooftops because it’s obviously so far above what most people earn, and I don’t want to seem like I’m lording it over them or something. I also recently crossed off my years-long goal of owning a BMW, but I haven’t really told anybody because again, it seems like bragging. (For the record, it’s a 2002 and it was only $3650…so no riches required.)

I don’t really have a question about the second part, just wanted to get it off my chest that it feels strange to accomplish big goals only to turn around and realize that there’s almost no one with whom I can tastefully share my accomplishments. You guys are of course an exception, which I appreciate.

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Hi,

I think it’s quite important to celebrate any victories! So here is what I generally do at the end of a month (if it was good) or after a big win:

  • Tell my wife who always my biggest supporter :smile:
  • Go out to celebrate with my wife. This may include a concert, some expensive wine or whatever you like.
  • Sometimes I write a blog post about it even though I almost never publish these in the end

As for sharing monetary accomplishments… Hmmmm…

In my experience just nobody outside my family really cares. I think the main reason is that all my friends are working 9-5 and are so far removed from what I do as a solo founder that they cannot comprehend what most of my accomplishments mean for me. But this is totally understandable in my opinion. Let’s look at 2 examples of my past:

Example 1: A Consulting gig which brings me 100€/hour:
After I scored one of my first consulting gigs I was asked about it at a party with my friends and of course they wanted to know the rate and as we are always open about what the other makes I flat out told them. Nobody was able to see what this hourly rate meant for my bank account in the end. There are just to many factors involved like taxes, health care, retirement and so on…

Example 2: A client bought ~10000€ worth of software licences for my self developed software
This was a happy day for my and it felt like free money (even though it wasn’t). This is even more removed from the life of any of my friends so nobody even comments on this or even cares.

Sadly (or maybe luckily), this leaves me to only celebrate victories with my wife and I honestly don’t know if I want this to change or not as I would be worried that there could be envy among friends?!?

Of course any non-monetary goals are hard to celebrate because “80% unit test coverage” or “10% click through rate” just sounds like gibberish to most people :wink:

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Generally speaking, I’m not the celebrating type. I feel like celebration weakens my resolve. I’ll maybe take the family out for a nice meal together, and that’s it. Whenever I have a win, my focus is on getting right back after it and trying to either top it or perpetuate it, depending on the nature of the win.

And you make a very cogent (and little-talked-about) point with this:

BTW, there’s also the weirdness of accomplishing something like earning $15K+ in a month of freelancing. I can’t shout that kind of accomplishment from the rooftops because it’s obviously so far above what most people earn, and I don’t want to seem like I’m lording it over them or something. I also recently crossed off my years-long goal of owning a BMW, but I haven’t really told anybody because again, it seems like bragging. (For the record, it’s a 2002 and it was only $3650…so no riches required.)

I don’t really have a question about the second part, just wanted to get it off my chest that it feels strange to accomplish big goals only to turn around and realize that there’s almost no one with whom I can tastefully share my accomplishments. You guys are of course an exception, which I appreciate.

I absolutely, 100% relate to this - so much so that I have a half-written blog post on the topic sitting in my Draft queue, that I’m not sure I’ll ever publish.

There are a lot of things about the freelancing life that can isolate us such that our pals with “normal” jobs can’t relate to use in some pretty major ways:

  • Merely being self-employed is one level of isolation; it requires a type of thinking that isn’t easily understood unless you’ve done it.
  • Earning big is another level of isolation.
  • Gaining notoriety is another level of isolation.
  • The external evidence of success - even if not conspicuous - is another level of isolation.

Like you said, it’s not a matter of lording it over anyone, or thinking that these things make us better than others, because they don’t - but they do give us a set of problems, concerns, and contexts that are not common to most people.

I agree, you can’t shout from the rooftops that you made $15K freelancing this month; that would be crass. But if you have the right kind of friends, you can tell them “Dude, June has been a HUGE month, I’m so stoked” without mentioning any numbers, and nobody will get weird about it.

I have some friends I can say this to, and some I can’t. I have some friends with whom I share actual numbers, and some I can’t. One particular friend accidentally stumbled into a $5mm/year business, and he’s particularly fun to talk numbers with, because nothing I report is going to make him feel insecure. On the flip side, I’m very much a “be happy for other people” type, so he can do the same with me.

What I do NOT have are friends who act weird or shitty or jealous about my wins. I blew all those guys out the airlock years ago and never looked back. Relatives, on the other hand…ugh. Apparently it takes very little income disparity for one’s family to start getting weird about it (or maybe it’s just MY family). But I’m not even going to get into that.

Frankly, the problem posed in your OP is what communities like this are for. We’re ALL grinding, and whether we’re all earning well or not, we get it. We understand the drive, and we understand the thrill of discovering that the juice was worth the squeeze. If I were to pop in here on July 1st like “OMG you guys! I netted out $30K for June! I’m so excited!” nobody would be shitty or catty, because on some level we’re ALL trying to “net $30K for June”, adjusted for whatever level of the game we’re playing at.

The bottom line is that you’e going to have to include more people who are doing the same things you are doing into your circle of friends, even if it’s only by virtue of online communities like this. You can’t expect your vanilla friends to really “get” entrepreneurship - if they do , that’s a bonus, but you can’t expect it.

TL;DR version: I celebrate my victories quietly, and only with people who I know won’t be weird about it.

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Oh 10% click through rate is definitely something to celebrate about :smile:

I would definitely celebrate:

  1. grab a beer
  2. buy a big cigar
  3. post it on instagram
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Great topic.

I do 2 things to celebrate:

  • announce my “win” to my mastermind group. This is whole point of being in a MM. To keep each other accountable and help us get these wins. Announcing it here lets the other guys know that they helped make this happen.

  • Book a vacation. This helps tie a “win” to a memorable trip so you can look back on the trip and remember why you did it.

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Love those two things Brian. Need to do that.

^ THIS.

If only this would not have been an example :smiley:

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That’s hilarious. My extended family - who still don’t really understand my work - are like that.

“Oh, is that one of those internet things you do? Well…I’m glad it’s working out.”

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Thanks, guys. @Christopher, your response was particularly helpful. Feels nice to be understood and talk to other people who “get” it.