Two casual comments inspire this post...

An old drummer friend from one of my previous bands stuck his head in the door at a gig I was playing to say hello. "I was walking by," he said, "heard the guitar playing and knew it was you." This is probably a very good thing - although a lack of confidence made me think have I been playing the same few licks for so long  that I'm that easy to spot?

And I recently asked a guitar player to show me a lick he'd been playing at a gig we were doing together. "I wish I could play like you," I said (this guy was very good). "I wish i could play like you," he replied. Then added, "We all think that what the other guy is doing is better than what we're doing. It's because we know what we're doing and we don't know the other guy's stuff."

This isn't to say that one shouldn't strive to learn more, and to keep on learning, but it is to say that it's worth developing one's own sound, style, and uniqueness, and being comfortable and confident in what one has to say, whatever the level of one's playing. Other folks are making th emusical statements they have to make- why copy them? Tell your own story.

Still wish I could play like that second chap, though.