Taking constructive criticism from others is required to get to the next level.
Wendy Starland
So, you’ve noticed you’ve got some critics, right? Well guess what? It’s not all bad. As a matter of fact, having critics means that you’re actually on the right track. The next time you visit Amazon, click on the best-selling books. You’re going to notice something a little bit weird: even the best selling books, those which have sold the most copies and those which have attracted thousands of positive reviews, haven’t reached five stars. Why? Well, it’s because you can’t please everybody.
Here’s an example. Take a look at the listing for Fifty Shades of Grey. That one has almost 85,000 reviews. But if you check the reviews you’ll notice that about 5200 reviewers rated it just two stars. And over 11400 reviewers hated it. They gave it just 1 star.
Here’s another one: look at Seven Habits of Highly Successful People by Stephen Covey. It’s been selling millions of copies since 1989. Some of you reading this article weren’t even born then. That book has sold over 25 million copies and it has over 15 million sales of the audio Edition. Surprisingly it has an average rating of 4.5 stars on Amazon; it’s not a five-star wonder, except for the 30-year anniversary edition.
Not even the beloved Dr. Seuss achieved perfect five-star ratings for every book. Now I’m not here to downplay the success of Dr. Seuss, but I do want to get one thing across–and that is that no matter how successful you are no matter how many people you help, no matter how perfect you appear to be, you’ll never appeal to everybody. That’s never going to chan–you just can’t please everybody all the time
In fact it’s been said that until you get haters you’re not really that successful. we brand headers as people who don’t like our stuff, but in fact their feedback shows that you touched a nerve that provoked the reaction now, there’s always likely to be constructive feedback, but when anger pours out in a critics writing, then you know you’re doing something important enough for them to really care about.
Every creative person every producer of a product or service has critics. To some extent that’s because it is really easy to be a Critic. Criticism can be hard on product creators and service providers. But it’s that veryt criticism that makes them better. Of course, if more people give you negative reviews than positive ones, it should prod you towards an honest self-appraisal of your product or service.
In fact, it’s been said that until you get haters, you’re not really on the path to success. We brand haters as people who hold a grudge and attack our products or services. But the truth is, their feedback shows that you touched a nerve. Of course, there’s always constructive feedback but when anger can be seen in writing, guess what? Then know that you’re doing work that matters enough for the critics to care about.
So the next time somebody posts negative remarks about your blog post, or your mini-report or what have you,, try this – – cheer up and remind yourself that you are on the right path and you are doing the right thing. You can even thank your critics for the reminder!
