Yesterday I wrote about taking a measured approach to making any changes in your tool set or software. One reason I encouraged you not to add or switch tools very often is that the process distracts you from established processes that are already making you money. Don’t be chasing shiny objects thinking they’re guaranteed to improve your business, because the process of adding them may actually hurt your business.

Today we’re going to talk about another terrible reason to make a change in your tool set.

You’re not me

I use Blogo to write and Evernote to store research and I wrote about it all.

Let’s say you’re a fan of this blog and you’ve found some of my recommendations helpful. If so, I’m happy to hear that. But just because I recommend a tool or app, that doesn’t mean it’s going to work as well for you as it does for me. Using the same tools as me won’t cause you to write like me, or replicate any success you believe I’ve had. The tools themselves won’t necessarily make your content any better — and why would you want content like mine anyway? Because I get so many views?

First, I likely don’t get as much traffic as you think, and second, that’s simply not how it works.

[Tweet “Using the same tools as someone else will not give you the same results”]

I use Vim to write my code and I have my own Vim configuration on Github if you want to try it.

Using my Vim configuration won’t guarantee you can write code with the same care I can, nor will it make you write with the same speed I do.

It’s easy to get obsessed with tools. What tools do the successful creatives use? How do they use them? Why do they like one tool instead of another? – The Good Creative

But tools and workflows are interesting

I totally agree that it can be fun and exciting to explore tools used by people better than you at something; people who perhaps have a workflow you admire and/or have achieved a level of success you’d like to reach.

Of course, you always stand to learn from people like this — no argument. But it’s important to be realistic about your expected outcome.

Remember: you don’t have their experience in the industry, so you won’t reach their same level of success overnight just by adopting their habits and/or tools.

If you want to write about business, remember I have over 1000 posts on this site, with about 80% of them being focused on topics about running a business.

But, unlike Chris Lema, I don’t have 20 years of experience in the software business. Even if I adopted his daily blogging routine, I wouldn’t have his content or his voice.

So just like yesterday, I’m telling you to take a measured approach. Learn about what someone better than you is doing and how it works for them.

Incorporate parts that make sense in your workflow and then make changes to help make that workflow yours.

[Tweet “Use a workflow then make it your own to really get success”]

Write 800 posts about business or 20K lines of code and keep refining your workflow to make it yours.

Don’t expect that mimicking is going to make you as good as someone else. At best it’s going to make you a cheap imitation, and I don’t think that any of us want to be cheap imitations.

photo credit: lego27bricks cc