Here's The Powerful Truth About Winning.

Thinking is difficult, that’s why most people judge.?- Carl Jung

My social media guru called me to say we had nearly 700,000 views of just one Instagram video.?I envisioned not one, but three, of those iconic music concerts where 200,000 people attended, all of them watching our social media.?Validation, in droves.?Made me smile.

Then I read the small handful of hater comments.?My own private Hindenburg.?One minute zipping through glorious blue skies, the next on fire and crashing. ?

We have a patent on a game changing design where the bow of our boat opens up and becomes a boarding ramp.?You simply stroll up and into the boat instead of painful crawling acrobatics over the bow.?Climbing up and over the traditional bow design is an uncomfortable, difficult climb.?For many, an impossible task, keeping them from enjoying boating.?Our ramp innovation totally reinvents access, enabling easier boarding for 100% of users.

The design is like a Higgins landing craft, the type used on D Day which changed the outcome of WW2.?Where are the haters of that elegant design so impactful in changing the dynamics of the world in June 1944? ?

I checked out the profiles of the negative commenters and the people look like everyone else.?But, as a student of human nature, I recognize that these people are suffering.?Social media becomes the pressure relief valve for those carrying unresolved anger. ?A neighbor kicked my cat yesterday, so I’ll take it out on the milkman today.

My grandmother used to say, “If you can’t stay something nice, don’t say anything at all.”?Spectacular advice.?Adhering to it makes you think about what you’re going to say.?Makes you look more intelligent, if you apply it consistently.?And it creates introspection about your thoughts.?There are no negative side effects.

But social media becomes the lost baggage depot for suitcases stuffed full of anxieties.?It almost encourages not thinking, just say it.?The worst part is, when someone makes a hateful comment, doing so reflects more negatively on who says it than what is said.?

Let’s say your name is Nigel and you stand on a podium in front of 500 of your company’s management, production, finance, HR, sales and marketing people and say, “Hey, you suck.” ?Your one pointing finger provokes 500 pointing back.?Add the 1000’s more when those 500 start talking at cocktail parties about what Nigel did.

No, it’s flawed thinking to believe incendiary comment grenades tossed into the dark void of social media don’t ricochet back, staining the thrower.?

I love this from Theodore Roosevelt’s speech at the Sorbonne in Paris on April 23, 1910:

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

So I’m going to recognize those timid souls knowing neither victory nor defeat for what they are, vessels of gaucherie, and side with the 15,000 that looked at our video and shared positive love.?My grandmother would be proud.

Whether you’re a creator or otherwise totally immersed in your craft, negative comments sting more.?If you don’t care, they matter less. ?Sometimes it’s fuel for the committed.

In 1919, the Kansas City Star fired Walt Disney because the editor said, “Walt, you lack imagination and have no good ideas.”?Lighting a fire in Walt that day produced a world wide triumph worth trillions.?In 1954, Grand Ole Opry’s manager Jim Denny said, “Elvis, nobody likes your music, go back to truck driving.”?Last year Elvis raked in over $110M despite that he’s been dead for 45 years.?In 1985 Apple’s board told Steve Jobs something like, “You’re done. You sweat the details often at the expense of your team’s feelings.” ?Today, Apple is the most revered company on earth.

Contemplate this:

• There are no rainbows without rain.
• Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a bitter batter.?Some are better than others at dealing with it.
• See knock downs as inspiration to come back stronger.

Epictetus was right, forget about what you can’t control, focus on what you can.?Do that to win.?