Never Bitch About Your Industry… Even if You Mean Well
Tomas Svitorka
?? High Performance Strategies and Tips |??Cross the Finish Line. ?? Performance Coach for Entrepreneurs, CxOs and Leaders around the world | ?? Feat: The Guardian, GQ, Vice, Virgin...| ?? 1:1 Coaching | ?? Speaking
Whether you’re a marketer, web developer, consultant, coach, dentist or in any other profession, I’m sure you get frustrated every now and then when you see someone in your industry cutting corners, promising something they cannot deliver, or just plain lying about what they can do or have.
I feel your pain. I’m a coach, and unfortunately, my industry is not an exception.
The reality is that there are black sheep, cons, shams in EVERY area of life. No one profession is an exception. Challenge me on this if you disagree.
It has to do with human nature, not with a particular field or industry. Some people just have the guts and lack of backbone and conscience to exploit others, their trust and vulnerability.
Every so often I see frustrated posts where professionals and entrepreneurs just lose it and go on an epic rant about how corrupt some people in their industry are.
I always wonder whether it’s a genuine opinion or a strategic attempt at making themselves look better.
Whichever reason they’ve got, it doesn’t work. You should never do that, and here is why.
When you feel like taking it out on people in your industry or the industry itself, remember you’re part of it.
Whatever you say will project on you as well, whether you like it or not, even if you try to portray yourself as the “good guy”.
What I always see is a stroppy child throwing a tantrum because life is not fair. Get on with it.
Are you not happy with the standards in your field? Great! Go out there and show them how it’s done! Stop complaining that someone did this and someone did that. Lead by example! I don’t know one successful person who would be looking around picking on what others are doing wrong. Why? Because they are busy developing themselves and their product or service. They are busy making sure doing a great job themselves.
Show me where Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, (to name the top ones in their fields) are ranting about how crooked others in their field are. You can’t because they don’t! Granted, some influencers and top dogs may point out things that need improvement, but they do so as causes that they get behind and work to address (and it’s hardly ever something in their industry; it’s usually some big picture issue that the world needs to solve.)
I truly believe that we live in such transparent and open times – thanks to social media and Google – that anyone who is scamming people will be exposed sooner or later.
Don’t waste energy trying to be the moral police. If you want to be sure that all customers are protected, maybe that’s a business idea for you. Other than that, focus on making sure you’re doing a great job, that your customers are delighted with your service and product, to the point that they become raving fans. Be so exceptional that you set a new standard in your industry.
Every minute you waste on analysing what others are doing wrong is a minute you could have spent on improving your product or service, or a minute you could have to spend with your clients.
If you have time to notice what others are doing wrong, you’re not busy enough.
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Tomas Svitorka | Life Coach & Speaker | Award-winning Entrepreneur
More about me at https://tomassvitorka.com
L&D Consultant | Instructional Designer | Helping organisations create impactful, engaging, and accessible training
7 年Hey Tomas, I might not be getting what you mean by "bitching". If you mean using inappropriate language, I agree with you. But if you mean talking about the low standards in your industry, I don't see any issues with that. In fact: 1) If you are aware that someone in your industry is misleading the market, cheating and lying, or providing inferior product or service, and you know this because you are an insider, it's your moral obligation to tell others about it. 2) If others in your industry are providing inferior product/service/promises and yours is truly better, it's you owe it to your business to tell the market about it, and educate them why your product/service is better. 3) I don't think the examples you gave really support your argument. Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are in a business-of-one-kind. They don't have any competitors. I can think of a lot of businesses who are in direct competition and do talk about the weaknesses in each other products, even make fun of the other products (that's called marketing). A few examples: Apple Vs Microsoft, iPhone Vs Samsung, BMW Vs Audi (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2O58aPbBxw), MERCEDES Vs JAGUAR (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLFSrBFRHKM), Burger King Vs McDonald's, ... 4) Again, I don't know what you mean by "bitching". "If you have time to notice what others are doing wrong, you’re not busy enough." Simply, not true. Noticing, analysing, taking action about what others in your industry are doing (wrong or right) is smart marketing. 5) In your industry, coaching, the Ultimate Coach, Steve Hardison is a well-respected (and one of the most exclusive and expensive coaches). He says: "Most coaches have a script or a program. These coaches buff, tweak, and improve your life or your business – a little. I change lives. I have no set curriculum because you are my material. My program is in your speaking. You speak. I listen. We dance. Your life ignites." Isn't what he says true about most so called "coaches"? In my industry, the reality is that most "tutors" help your child memorise some stuff and get through a test or exam. That's not what we do. We change your child's future, by helping them become problem solvers and individual thinkers. Most "tutoring businesses" hire cheap unqualified people, then keep most of the money and pay their tutors 30% of what they charge parents. If that's what you call "bitching", I'll keep "bitching" until these people in my industry either raise their standards or go out of business
Coach for the Elite | Radical transformations. No bullshit | Author of 'From Good to Amazing'
7 年Precisely.
?? ?? SOVAS Nominated Voice Actor Producing Broadcast-Quality Voice Over from my Home Studio with Source Connect ? Commercials ? Animation Voiceover ? Audiobook Narrator & Editor ? Podcast Narrator & Producer
7 年Reminds me of your course Diana Lowe! ?
| Dad of Twin Girls | Veteran | MBA
7 年Totally agree. Whiners, complainers, etc. are energy takers and not people I like to associate with. If you must make a change, so be it, but publicly airing dirty laundry is a mistake I made early in my career and it's one that I will not make again.
Girlfridayz marketing services provide SMEs with high-quality expert knowledge and scalable solutions contributing to your growth with our resources, website design and planning. Trisha is a theorist|Author| Innovator.
7 年I noticed lately that the recruitment industry using LinkedIn has Aunty Sally, there is an elephant in the room that no one wants to address with the industry so he or she endlessly complain over trivial matter such as innocent mistake which in his or her eyes deserve shaming the industry I believe is an attempt to maybe generating "comment or like" this type of Marketing Buzz is rather negative and usually does not amount to much. Instead of venting your disapprovements on this platform why not contact your Aunt Sally she there for that or address the issues within your work at a team meeting because all you do there is tarnishing your reputation and this could equate to fewer customers and loss of contract should one of your clients decide to use LinkedIn. It also very unprofessional That a post I wrote today