It seems that it’s easier to spot what someone else is doing wrong, than to identify and fix our own mistakes.
I was thinking of this earlier, when I received a sarcastic email from someone, who needed to tell me that she had spotted a typo in one of my blog posts and that the post itself was ‘a chunk of crap’. Ironically, she referred to the typo as a ‘typographic’ error, which is incorrect as the term is ‘typographical’ error.
Occasionally, when someone sends me that type of email (I get a handful a year), I will quickly check out their site. Thus far I have found that 100% of the time, if they have a blog themselves it either hasn’t been posted to in months or it has glaring mistakes. Usually both. In this instance, the person emailing me had not published a post on her own blog since March and her homepage is littered with errors.
Focusing on how we can improve
The most effective people in business are those who focus on how they can improve – rather than focus on what others have done wrong. They have figured out that their progress is driven my improving their own work, not unpicking what you or I have done.
Yes, it’s easier to knock others down than it is to build something of our own. However, people seldom destroy their way to happiness or success.