Years ago, when I was first getting my career going, my father gave me a profound piece of advice. He said, “If you’re going to do great things, you’ve got to get ready to take a lot of criticism. Because people who go try and do a lot of great things are always going to get criticized more than anybody else around.”
Over the past couple of weeks, in talking with a few very close friends, I’ve heard a lot of this and now know exactly what my father meant.
When I talk about big-picture ideas, I think there’s only a general percent of the people around me who probably believe they are capable. But, there are those who want to be naysayers, yet there are those who flourish in the success and the ideas that come out of big-picture thinking.
If you’re going to do great things, you’re going to fail. You’re going to try, try, try again. And you’re not always going to be successful. But if you try enough things for a long enough period of time, you’re going to find things that work well. And I think that’s what makes some people so furious and enjoy talking about other people so much. And as for people who chase after success, the general public just wants to see them fail. They’ll talk about them until they’re blue in the face because they’re not trying to do anything on their own. So, as I reflect back over the last few weeks and a time when I’m trying more new things than I’ve ever done in my career, it is both humbling and very reminding of that great quote: “If you’re going to try to do great things, you will receive an enormous amount of criticism for it.”