How do you accept that you’re not the best?

I am not the best. There are always going to be people better than I am but the thing is, there is people better than they are. They are not me. The did not have the same experiences I did, they grew up differently, have different friends, family, read different books, live in a different place. They are not me, and I am not them. It is unfair to yourself to compare yourself to other people.
The only one I want to compare myself to, is myself.
No one can be the "best" for anything more than a moment. That moment is fleeting, and ultimately meaningless. What does matter though, is your effort. your own growth. Every creature on this planet is in a state of growth and change. I am a strong believer in effort, hard work and growth. Even if you can never be the "best" you can be better than you were yesterday.
I used to care, I used to compare my artwork to other people. I used to have it compared by other people. I felt inadequate as people half my age were winning awards for the field I wanted so desperately to be part of. Then one day I woke up and I realized all this. That those people have growing to do too. And I just stopped caring about their path. I focused on what made me happy. On my effort, my growth, my path. Not for anyone but myself. I know I have flaws. I know that i am not perfect. I know I still have lots of growing to do, but I also am proud of how far I've already come.

How do I accept I'm not the best? Pff, who says I'm not!?

Joking aside, the more time I spend in the industry, the more I discover that everything professional creators can do can be learned and/or copied. I can crack open "Drawn to Life" by Walt Stanchfield and read it and try to copy the techniques and learn to draw like a Disney artist. I can watch The Incredibles with the director commentary and learn how Brad Bird directs his scenes and viewer attention and tone so perfectly. I can read "Save the Cat!" and learn how to structure a story like a professional screenwriter. These abilities aren't magical gifts granted by spiritual beings, they're just skills people can learn. "angle your characters at a diagonal so they look more dynamic", "Write your story first, then go back and edit to make it all feel like it fits together".

A lot of the time, the thing that separates people who hit it big early in their career and people who take longer or who give up is really just privilege and luck. People are generally not born with incredible writing or drawing talent. They usually have some sort of mentor who taught them that, OR they copied it from somebody else who learned it. They usually also had some kind of support, like a mentor or advisor, a great editor or an amazing team.

Like, let's look at Star Wars for a minute. People always frame it like Star Wars just jumped from the mind of Lucas, super-genius man, wow! How can a person just make Star Wars!? ....Well... by learning, copying and.... having a great team. It makes sense, right? If he was a super genius man, how could the same guy who made the perfect movie that is the original Star Wars (A New Hope) also make... The Phantom Menace, which even though I personally can enjoy it, it's not....good.
An awful lot of the structure of Star Wars is heavily influenced by or straight up copied from Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress. The choice to set it from the droids' point of view (like the two bickering peasants from Hidden Fortress), the decision to make it start in media res, the decision to have tense sword fights... It was this mixed with a basic "Hero's Journey" narrative structure (which Lucas learned from a book) and the aesthetic of pulp 1950s sci fi as imagined by a great team of concept artists and prop and set makers. The space battles are copied from WW2 dogfight movies, to the point that originally they used clips from these to stand in for these scenes during production. Then of course, the whole movie when it was first made was SO BAD that Spielberg said it was awful (in much cruder language) and it was only made into something narratively coherent and watchable by Lucas' then wife editing it to within an inch of its life, and let's not forget Carrie Fisher's always underappreciated work as a script doctor making the dialogue better! (Rest in Peace, absolute heroine).

What I'm saying is, most of the time, genius isn't an island. Anyone can learn to be a great creator if they put in the effort and go through a learning process, or if they have an amazing team behind them.

Whenever I'm feeling down, I like to watch Hbomberguy's video about how RWBY fails to live up to its premise1. RWBY was massively popular, but it's completely inept! It fails on so many of the rules of basic writing. Most of what's good about it either comes from Monty Oum (rest in peace) or is cribbed from other series (mostly Cowboy Beebop, Avatar and Korra). I watch that video and I think ".....I could do better than that!" I think that anyone who has put some effort into reading books and watching videos about narrative structure could write a better version of RWBY. Do I think I could write a better version of Avatar the Last Airbender? Hmm... maybe not? Or not yet? (I could probably write better than that episode where they're all in the canyon though. That one is mehhh) But I think I could write a better RWBY and that's a start, right?
The longer you keep studying and making things, the more things you'll see and think "okay, I think I know how this could be improved", and the more high quality those things will be. You have to start somewhere though. You have to take that step and make those mistakes that you'll learn from. So go and make them! Get your mistakes out the way now so that if you do get the opportunity of an audience and budget, you'll be a stronger creator who has learned from mistakes when that happens!

I feel like in the comic/writing world, you don't really need to be the best or "top of the class". I feel like there's a threshold that you need to meet where people are not too distracted by the quality of art/writing and are just there for the story. I feel like my recommendation is to just read a large variety of work. If you are only hyper focusing on the stuff made by a veteran or a team of 10 people, of course it is going to look intimidating. But sometime finding other people who are at your same level who were able to be successful may give you some insight into a what goal you need to reach.

Two things: to be the best, you have to actually make things that aren't the best. Ever read the first book/creative project by someone who's considered to be "the best"? It's usually not amazing. They got to be the best because they allowed themselves to NOT be the best, and in doing so, failed. And learned from their failures. Being "the best" is built upon multiple failures. If you never fail, you will never be the best.

Second of all, popularity has nothing to do with quality, lol. In fact I'm convinced that you HAVE to be at least some flavor of mediocre to be a sensation, because... I feel like flaws, ironically, make people connect with and take ownership of a work more so than something that's a masterpiece. Like... take Harry Potter. I'm not gonna say it's bad or anything, but is it seriously the best? Absolutely not. Rowling did an absolutely terrible job at exploring the world she built and wasted a ton of potential... but the fans took that wasted potential and ran with it, and made that world their own.

Oh yeah, this a great question! When I was younger I actually struggled with this a lot, particularly when I was a teenager and discovered comics and started wanting to do that type of art. I would look at manga like Death Note and think how I really liked that style, but I almost didn’t even want to bother trying unless I could make art that looked like that with that level of detail, which of course I knew I couldn’t. As a result I really only did a handful of comic pages, and a couple of projects, and nothing that went very far. (And what’s more, I never intended to go very far with anything because I’d given up before I even tried.)

Over time however, my way of thinking changed—I learned to value my personal growth and journey of making a project over the end result, and also develop tricks to make the work itself more relaxing and enjoyable for itself. As a result, the time feels meaningful and well spent to me whatever the results might be, whether it’s not as good as I want or nobody reads it. Every creative project I do is experience that slots into my overarching goal of just learning new things and improving.

Another thing that changed in my way of thinking that really helped me was, strangely, learning to enjoy amateur work. As a kid I had zero interest in creative content that wasn’t super slick/hyper professional looking, and it was in discovering fanfiction I eased up on this a bit, and later that I came to appreciate a lot of works I wouldn’t have even looked at before, in spite of not being as polished. But even with professional work—I know a lot of people might disagree with this, but part of my creative journey was coming to realize that being hyper critical of creative works or wholesale denouncing them as bad or poor (and thinking to myself that they would have been so much better if they had done this or that) was actually resulting in the crippling paralysis of not being able to produce my own work. Because in actually getting into the work I’d always discover it wasn’t as easy as I thought, and being that harsh critic of other works ramped up my own inner critic against myself.

So now instead of looking at other works as ‘bad’ or ‘good,’ I look at individual elements of something and look for what I personally like or dislike, and try to learn from those things when making my own work. And so now I’m striving, not to create something that others will objectively call ‘the best,’ but something that is wholly unique to me, that is a combination of all the things I personally like and would not exist if I didn’t make it. I still want to improve (there are so many levels better I could be), but thinking that way helps keep me feeling satisfied enough with the work I've done and am doing to keep going, however imperfect it is.

It's kinda strange. I actually do admittatly have a bit of an ego, and narcissistic personality, as in I genuinly enjoy just looking at myself in the mirror. Yet, I also really enjoy laughing at myself, which I guess is how I remind myself I'm not a perfect person.

I was (and still to some level) affected by people I had to interact with on University. As everyone started to go ballistic on career jokes, grade comparison, sassy comments from listeners when I expressed something I genuinely wanted to take off my chest, just to be used for a silly joke or mock to my stupidity, or just be looked for when I was of use, then to be replaced by others who were more useful for certain tasks...

It took me 4 years to realize it.

It stopped me from being genuine and do what I wanted to do in fear that it wasn't what others expected of me.

Maybe something similar happens to you and something or someone is feeding that idea of yours. If you can talk about it with someone (in person or with a professional) it really helps to start to come to terms that you won't please everyone or be number 1 on everything, while boosting up your morale to do what you want because you want to and is good for your realization as an individual.

I don't know, I don't compare myself to others.
I'm the best at what I do and definitely better than what I did.

Well, I had a bit similar situation but not the same, I had doubts about my comic too back then and may leave it completely unfinished. But turned out I just got fatigued and overworked. So far my comic only has a cult following, but I'm grateful for it.

I didn't, because I am. I'm better than all of you, idk why I'm even here.

Kidding, it's hard. I have a ton of artists I look up to, but I try not to compare myself to them. Instead, I compare myself to myself from yesterday, or a week ago, or last month, whenever. I'm constantly looking at my old art and thinking of how far I've come since then. I don't have to be the best, I just have to be better than yesterday. It's good to acknowledge your mistakes, but it also helps to find things you like about your art so you feel more comfortable about those mistakes. I also tried being critical of other artists' works (mostly in my own head, but it can be good to have someone to talk about it with), it's a healthy reminder that I'm not the only one who isn't the best. And another thing I do when I look at art from people I think are better than me, I try to look at some of their older stuff to see where they came from, so I see I'm not the only one who had a hard time.

At the end of the day, none of us will ever be the best, there will always be someone better, and then the rules will change. The best we can do is just be better than yesterday and be happy with that.

At my best (and this is not everyday), I'm able to see young artists flourish, older artists hone their amazing skills, and have my butt kicked by a great writer- and love it all. But that's my best day. When the emptiness in my head isn't a self-doubting, needy blackhole of indecision and self-doubt (did I say "self-doubt" twice? Oh well, it's not elegant, but it tracks).

But if I can push past that, get on a work schedule, and spend time doing the writing/art (and being grateful that I'm able to do that work), it gets better. And honestly, having opportunities to vent and make connections in a community of artists helps a lot too. It's nice to feel like I'm not alone.

I know that I'm never going to be the best version of the artists I most admire. I can only be the best me. And for every 100 comic panels I draw that I cringe at (always after the fact), there are a few that I'm genuinely excited that I drew.

I remember John Romita Jr. talking about his "deadline" style. He had to kick so many books out the door and sometimes his art suffered (with character inconsistencies/weird proportions/etc). But him sitting and doing the work has created a large body of work that is incredibly impressive.

One of the best things I did was print a copy of my comic (as a book) because it gives weight and tangibility to your work. It feels like it matters more. And when I see the panels on the page, yeah, some of them are deadline style, but they might sit next to a panel that I love and it feels pretty damn good overall.

To @Kelheor's point, when you can find the time and space to sit and hone your craft, it really pays dividends. I'm both blown away and inspired by the progress of so many people here. To see so many comics start off with good art but then find them cranking out masterpieces 40 episodes in, it's exciting. You can see it when people really apply themselves. I love seeing people becoming their best selves (and excited to see where it all goes).

I remember a moment in college when I didn't know what the heck I'd do (writing, film, comics, etc), dabbling with everything. I loved comics, but the second I saw a dedicated artist show off their amazing Daredevil page, I packed it up and leaned into film and animation hard. I felt I would never be that good and I dropped comics for 16 years (and that was such a mistake). I'm happy for where my non-linear journey brought me (it's damn amazing to work in an art field, I'm not complaining), but I kick myself for letting my love of making comics go. So yeah, I have a lot of catching up to do to be my best self, but I am grateful for the other skills that I acquired that I can put into my craft.

But all in all, thanks for expressing your doubts @aqua03. I feel that, even in doing that, it gives so many of us a chance to feel like we're not alone on our journey.

I can only say how it's a mindset of a whole bunch of people here, that's why most of us don't ever start doing comics, we never feel we are good enough

Well...I know I´m an amateur I´m just getting started into the comic world and I know there are a bunch of many comics out there that seem better into our eyes and sometimes we feel that we aren´t good enough but the thing here is that we can learn from our mistakes so we get better and are able to see our own progress because comparing to others is really bad, still none of us are perfect :/.

I kinda understand you, though I have another mindset - "if I don't do something perfect from the first try, I suck forever". Oh boy is this one problematic too.
Maybe try to look at this as "if I don't make mistakes, I don't progress" We just can't be perfect from the first try. You need to fall, and to stand up, and to fall again to stand up and go.
Also our ideas and the whole vision of what we consider "great" are growing with us, so we never can catch up with them. In my mind all my characters and all my comics are 10 levels ahead of what I can do with them right now and believe it or not, it's like that for me since 1998, so like... Do you really want to live this life full of doubt and feeling unworthy for 20 more years? I know I don't

I kind of think a part of it is critique culture. There is a butt ton of YouTube critique videos out there dissecting all sorts of media so it’s easy to get into the mindset of “if I make a mistake then I’m going to get ridiculed” or something.

Like, I TOTALLY get wanting to be the best. I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with wanting your work to be the best. I think life is way more fun when you have such big dreams and aspirations. But try not to be so goal oriented about it and try to be more process oriented. Instead of thinking “I’m not the best right now so why even try?” instead think “I’m definitely going to be the best someday so in the meantime I’ll try to have as much fun and enjoy my time in the now.” If you can teach yourself to enjoy the process of making art then it is pretty much a guarantee that you’ll keep making better and better art until people look at your art and think that you’re a genius. And you’ll just look back and think of all the fun you had along the journey. Me I’ve recently started listening to asmr videos on YouTube as I draw and that’s made the process so much more enjoyable. I’m enjoying the art I make and I know that this is just the beginning. I fully plan on making better and better art. That’s why I’m confident that someday I’ll see myself as number 1, and if not I’ll just keep trying. I don’t really have any other plans with my life. I am confident that you can do it too. Just try and remember to make it fun.

I think the issue isn't that you can't be the best, it's what can you be the best at. So many people fail to realize they can never be their idols. They can never be their favorite book, movie, or TV show. They have to be their own thing. If your comparing yourself to something or someone else, you'll always be behind it.

So be the best version of you. That's how you become the best. Not by comparing or contrasting your skills to others, but by building your skills and becoming something that's not out there yet.

And yes, there are standards. There are things people look for, things people notice. So yes you have to at least get to a level where you check a few boxes, but after that point, it's all about what you can bring to the table not what's at the table that you can replicate or try to replace.

Still, I can understand how rewiring your mind to fit this mentality can be hard. It's hard not to compare. It's hard not to see someone thats where you want to be and avoid a feeling of thousand miles to go.

But it can be done. Just don't even look for a door. Don't have expectations. Don't get your hopes up. Create because you are a creator. Put things out into the world until you don't have any more ideas. If it's not good enough to get you to the top of the mountain, at least it's a step closer. Close your eyes and just walk. Worry about how hard it was when you're dead, or when you get to where you want to go. Whichever comes first.

Be a better you until you're the best you, that's all I can really say.