Criticism is painful.
How painful?
It’s painful enough to stop us from creating great products and services. It’s painful enough to stop us from marketing them as creatively as we possibly can.
The thing is, almost all criticism comes from people, who aren’t in the market for what we do. It comes from people who were never going to hire us. It comes from people who envy our success.
- If you sell premium services, the low price crowd will be critical. It’s too expensive!
- If you sell low price services, the premium crowd will be critical. It’s too cheap!
- And whatever you sell, there will always be small-minded people who snipe at you. Who do you think you are!?!
NB: You’ll find this article useful “Why people criticise you and how to deal with it, in just 3 steps“.
Criticism is poison
This means we need to wise up. We need to listen to relevant voices. We need to learn from informed voices. We need to appreciate well-intentioned voices. And we need to ignore the rest.
Then… we need to follow the numbers!
Look at what the numbers tell you. Pay attention to your customers and prospective customers. Monitor their interest. Only then will you be free to do your best work. And free to market it the best way you can.
You’ll be amazed how your results improve when you learn how to deal with critics and their poison. It frees you to do your very best work, rather than a diluted version. It enables you to stand out, rather than try to blend in. It gives you and your products or services the visibility that only comes, when you’re truly doing things your way.
Of course, once you do this, the only thing stopping you is ‘you’. That’s both extremely liberating and more than a little scary. However, I work with businesspeople every day who’ve now learned how to overcome the fear of criticism. And the improvement it makes is life-changing.
You can overcome it with the right help
Decide today (yes today) to take action on overcoming your fear of criticism.
Every day and every opportunity you lose because of this needless hurdle, is another day and another opportunity you’ve lost.