Yikes. I want to write about something that isn’t that nice. Something that can send any entrepreneur running for the hills (or the surf in my case).
I want to talk about people who don’t like your stuff. Gulp. Unfortunately, it’s something that pretty much anyone in business will have to deal with at some point.
So here’s the deal: Sometimes people are going to be mean. Some people won’t like what you do. Some people will judge you and hold on to that judgement forever.
It’s one of the only guarantees you’ll ever get in business: Not everyone will love your work. But you know what? That’s totally ok.
But what’s not ok is when the fear of people judging you stops you moving forward.
I’m not saying it’s easy. The idea that someone could say something bad about you makes you want to stay anonymous and small. But at some stage, you have to make the decision to rise above the negative energy and blaze your own path.
Is it scary? Hell yes. Does it require thick skin? For sure.
It has been one of the toughest lessons I’ve ever learnt (and continue to learn!). Showing up (and especially showing up online) is a real test of your courage & vulnerability, but if you want to build a business, it’s something you’re going to have to do.
My advice? Figure out a way to deal with it before it even happens. Understand that the bigger your business gets, the more criticism you’ll attract.
Take a moment to think about who you actually want to listen to. Most successful people are too busy living their own lives and working on their own stuff to judge & criticise others. However, there are a whole bunch of peeps out there who love nothing more than to criticise others instead of doing something positive with their own lives.
I’ll leave you with my favourite quote of all time from Theodore Roosevelt :
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”