Entrepreneur or not, we tend to be enamored with the thoughts of others. Not what they think of themselves or the world but what they think of us. The truth is we are only in love with the positive things others say about us so I guess obsessed would be a better word than enamored. Obsession allows the phenomenon of craving the thoughts of others regardless of a negative or positive thought. Yes, the negative thought beats us up but it doesn’t stop the craving for the next. Nothing seems to be learned by the negative. We just wait for that next “fix” which is a positive statement about you from others. The question is why do you care? Are you aware of the power you are willingly giving to strangers? How long do the positive statements uplift you? Does it trump a negative comment? What do you do if the praise or belief from others takes a hiatus?
A couple of months back a very popular social media application published their plan of removing likes. The uproar was crazy. Celebrities threatened to not use the application if this occurred. Non-celebrities showed their disapproval by promoting their pages on other platforms showing that they wouldn’t be hanging around either. This uproar worked and the social media app back peddled and pretended the memo never occurred. My question again is why do we care? Likes don’t equal sales. Likes don’t equal fans. Likes don’t equal popularity. Yes, being popular may get you a higher average number of likes but no one controls what goes viral in the crazy world of social media. If that was the case, all viral videos would come from celebrities and almost none do. So, what are likes? Attention. Let’s say one of your photos gets 1000 likes. You are on top of the world. That next week you attempt to take an even better picture. You do. It’s great. You add it to your page and wait. The next day you have 80 likes. Next week, 135. Wow, okay. Now, you do one of two things. You either feel so bummed out you don’t post for a while, maybe even take the picture down or you attempt to take an even better picture. The only issue is you thought the last one was better. You are chasing a high you don’t know how to obtain. This is what causes people to go the “extra mile” on social media. They do something a little more extreme. They may show more skin. They may sacrifice their morals. They become a different person for strangers. The thing is the strangers move on and then you are left with the person you’ve become for them. Now, you are a stranger to yourself and no one can fix that but you.
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These people may love you or hate you but why do you care? The same people may swing back and forth. How does their current opinion of a picture of you, a video of you, a piece of your work, your dreams, or business affect the level of greatness of it? It doesn’t. When you share something with the world, no matter what it is, it is already what it is. The masses may take a while to get to the point of appreciating it or realize what is in front of them but you should know and be confident in what you’ve shared with the world. A hit song is a hit in the studio. An amazing script is that before it lands in the hands of actors, let alone a theater for the masses to see it come to life. We need to make a habit of putting our best foot forward and release that work, dream, plan into the world for consumption. The accolades are nice. The tough criticism not so much. Both will come. Neither matters. That’s right. The trophy matters as much as being acknowledged negatively. It doesn’t. Your why must be more than that. What if you never get the trophy? Should you stop producing work? Should you quit doing what makes you happy? Stop doing what gives you purpose for the sake of strangers? I say absolutely not. You produce the best you can and continuously attempt to get better. If the masses love you great. If the masses don’t fine. The work will be there forever and if the level of excellence is there it will be appreciated and consumed by who chooses to do so.
In closing, why do we care? We are selfish. We are insecure. We are immature. We don’t want the masses to explain how the work affects them. We want to hear how good we are. We don’t want to inspire people to create future works that will surpass ours. We want to hear that nothing will ever be as great as what we created. We don’t want to acknowledge that once our work is released to the masses it is no longer just for us. We want to control what we created forever disregarding the fact that it can only reach its peak by being set free. Once it leaves you, it is no longer only yours. It belongs to the world. To love it. To like it. To hate it. To ignore it. If you need a boost, look within. Tell yourself you’re great…what…what’s that you say? The masses will say you’re cocky and self-absorbed. Why do you care?
Food for thought…You do the dishes.
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