Negativity Will Ruin You

Let’s talk about negativity and getting ahead, shall we? If you want to get ahead, do not waste your time on negative stuff. It’s pure insanity to me that people waste their energy focusing on negative stuff. As Larry Page, the co-founder of Google says “Being negative is not how we make progress.” And yet, I see a lot of people spending precious brain cycles of negativity.

Before we go any farther, let’s define negativity.

neg·a·tiv·i·ty : noun

1. the expression of criticism of or pessimism about something.

I want to focus on two parts of that definition: criticism and pessimism.

Criticism:

Except in terms of running a Red Team/Blue Team scenario where you’re trying to identify the weakness in a plan, criticism is wholly uninteresting. Criticizing yourself (or someone else for that matter) is easy, and ultimately, pretty useless.

The magic happens when, if you see a flaw in an idea, you immediately move to how you make it work. What would need to be done in order to get to the desired result? Let the following statement sink into your soul: Being right about how something is going to fail is a useless insight.

Knowing that you’re about to get into a car accident doesn’t help anyone unless it helps you avoid it. But simply screaming that you’re about to hit something is a waste of energy. Far better to remain silent and put your attention on avoiding the accident in the first place. Train yourself to do the latter. Become absolutely obsessive about clicking IMMEDIATELY into solution mode when you see a problem. Never reward yourself (or anyone else) for pointing out problems without offering a solution.

If you learn to immediately and obsessively live in the problem-solving mode you will be astonished at how rapidly you move towards your goals. Being able to see the problems with an idea is super powerful it’s part of the one-two punch problem/solution. But it’s an absolute waste of time if it’s a part of a problem/I told you so cycle. Only solutions are valuable.

Pessimism:

This has to do with worldview. As Shakespeare noted, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”. Neither pessimism or optimism are truly justified. But choosing to be optimistic will give you the courage you need to try things, think outside the box, and continue on even when someone who is pessimistic will only see potential defeat. And that, of course, is exactly what you need to if you want to succeed against the odds.

Choosing pessimism on the other hand (often foolishly referred to as being “realistic”) robs you of the belief that things will work out (and thusly be worth the energy and attempts) and so people end up trying nothing. Pessimistic people rarely achieve anything significant because they never take the first step because they don’t think it will work out. They believe that the deck is stacked against them, so why bother even playing.

My most aggressive feedback to each and every one of you is to focus on what you’re trying to build rather than the army of reasons why it’s likely to fail. The truth is, whatever you’re trying to do probably is likely to fail, and yet, everything you see around you was created by somebody who allowed themselves to believe that, despite that, they could pull it off anyway. Keep that ember of hope inside of you at all times, and blow on till it burns bright enough to light the way forward. I can’t wait to see where it takes you.

Oh, and never, ever, ever put negativity out into the world. It’s like pouring sugar in the gas tank. If you think something’s going to fail, simply offer up what would have to happen for it to succeed. THAT approach is powerful.