So I have my advisors and every month I re-write my commitments to them.
One of my advisors usually never sends back any feedback to me. This past month he sent me a very long email of everything he thinks I'm doing wrong. Exactly what I needed. The TLDR is that I'm too obsessed with selling candles and not obsessed enough about making the best candles in the world.
I am pretty lucky my advisor is the best in the world at what he does. The product he makes is #1 in his category, and 3-5x more efficient than his competitor. The gap between him, and #2, is probably at least 1.5 deviations.
I have another friend, a classical pianist. He's played at Carnegie Hall a million times and shares pianos with Olivia Rodrigo. I once asked him where he ranked in skill compared to all the other classical pianists in the world, and he told me that he's probably 180-185th best.
What I find interesting is that both of these people are acutely aware of how their performance ranks compared to others in the world. And both of them are obsessed with being the best in the world with what they do, and they know how and why they are or aren't.
I played piano for around 12 years from ages 4-16. So I will compare my candle making journey to that. I feel like I'm an intermediate candlemaker. I can make most scents (not with precision), have an idea what "smells good", to most people. I definitely don't have enough practice that I can copy, know, or recreate the best scents. And I don't understand what makes them the best scents or best candles either. I am totally blind to the future of candles.
So I'm really interested in understanding what defines the boundaries of becoming the best in the world at something. How they discover those boundaries. And how they work beyond them.
Also, I need to change my commitment next month from I will be the best candlemaker in the world -> I will make the best candles in the world.