Comments on: Stephen Fry, critics and a business lesson

By: Jim Connolly

Jim Connolly — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:50:44 +0000

Great points Reeta.

I’d like to read a post form you about that!!

By: Reeta Luthra

Reeta Luthra — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:06:37 +0000

Because we put a lot of ourselves into the product/blog post/service etc, it feels that when someone criticises *it*, they are criticising *us*. The slur then becomes magnified and distorted in our own minds.

When you put yourself out there, feedback from others does go with the territory. For newcomers and people who are used to polite corporate wording, there is a learning curve involved in developing methods to deal with it in a constructive way.

Stephen Fry had a momentary loss of perspective and recovered. Businesses too can recover (e.g. Habitat after their trending topic spam on twitter). And so too in personal relationships.

The trick I think is in being willing to accept 1) we’re not perfect and most probably will react badly at times and 2) that holding onto the hurt of real or imagined criticism prevents us from learning to respond in a better way next time.

By: Jim Connolly

Jim Connolly — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:21:21 +0000

Hello Danny. You’re spot on about attracting more criticism, as your profile increases. I discussed this at the start of the year with Robert Scoble and was amazed how much negative crap he has aimed at him. He deals with it extremely well because, as you said in your comment, it goes with the territory.

Thanks for the feedback!

By: Danny Brown

Danny Brown — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:36:57 +0000

I saw the news about Stephen Fry and the “will he, won’t he” after-effect. To be honest, I didn’t see what all the commotion was about. So someone said something about Fry’s tweets being boring – I’m sure he’s had worse comments from reviews and critics in his lifetime.

The thing to remember is if you’re going to put yourself in the public eye – acting, business, even blogging – you’re going to get your fair share of critics as well as fans. No-one is so amazing that everybody loves them.

If you can’t take some criticism, don’t enter the playing field. Besides, criticism can often be the best kind of business improvement plan – run with it.

By: Jim Connolly

Jim Connolly — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:25:24 +0000

It’s always good to get feedback Julie. So long as we trust the source of the feedback and place it into context, it can be really valuable.

Thanks for the comment and your kind words.

By: Julie Walraven

Julie Walraven — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:23:42 +0000

Thanks, Jim, for another thought-provoking post. I have often struggled with “what will people think?” Sometimes it has stopped me dead in my tracks. I think it is important to make sure a decision is sound by running it by a few trusted sources but if you stop on what is a good sound idea because of fear of a few people being negative, you will get stuck in the “what if I had?’ mode for the rest of your life.

By: Jim Connolly

Jim Connolly — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:20:49 +0000

I love your opening line; “criticism, worded harshly, can be hard to accept calmly.”

I agree with you Gary, that it takes courage to be prepared to face criticism. Of course, the more you decide to ‘be your own person’ the easier it becomes to accept the knocks that often come, when you dare to be different.

Thanks for the comment.

By: Jim Connolly

Jim Connolly — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:17:17 +0000

Good morning Kian.

It’s certainly true that as you become better known, you attract more critics. As Tracey said in an earlier comment, a lot of it is jealousy. I guess thehe ‘bigger’ you get the more there is for small minded people to become jealous about.

Thanks for the feedback.

By: Jim Connolly

Jim Connolly — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:14:19 +0000

Thanks for the comment!

Learning is part of growing – essential if we want to develop as people / businesspeople.

The thing is Jamei, many people will be considering making a change that could massively improve their business or their lives, yet stop from doing it for fear of what critics ‘might’ say or do.

We have to allow our decisions to be governed by what we believe to be the right thing to do; not what we think will attract the least amount of criticism.

By: Jim Connolly

Jim Connolly — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:09:19 +0000

Hello Ed. I used Stephen Fry as an example because he has close to a million followers and his decision made the mainstream news here in England.

I think a better example of Chris Brogan, were the hateful posts people published when he started offering sponsored posts on his blog. I even had people on THIS blog slamming him.

He knew that there would be a negative response, yet he also believed that he was doing the right thing.

People like those you mentioned will always hire talent. Chris is talent.