Don't compare yourself to others - Conformist attitude?

I understand why people say don't compare yourself to others, there are billions of others in this world and inevitably there are going to be people better than you.

However, in order to truly be best you have to do just that, there is a reason we compare companies with others. We want to see how they measure up in specific areas and if they're are lacking, figure out why.

In order to better yourself as a person I believe you have to look at successful peers and coworkers, figure out what characteristics enabled them to be succeed and figure out a way to emulate them yourself. I understand there's a myriad of factors that affect the success of peers, and as such one should filter the comp universe accordingly.

This might be a bit off topic but I feel that more and more people are falling into a deterministic attitude where they believe they had absolutely no choice in the decisions that led to where they currently are, and as such place more value in momentary happiness over self-improvement. And as such more and more we hear conformist stuff like don't compare yourself to others.

What do you guys think?