Brian Gubernick argues that builders get monuments, critics get forgotten. Colonel Sanders faced over a thousand rejections before KFC succeeded. Bold work attracts ridicule, but criticism proves you're making an impact. Stop judging on social media and start building something.
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Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. You may have heard the quote— I just recently heard the quote— there are no statues erected to the critics. There are no statues erected to the critics. It's such a true statement. We do not build monuments to people who sit on the sidelines. We actually honor those who built, who created, dared, and oftentimes failed. In today's episode, I want to talk about what it means to be a builder, especially a builder in what I believe to be a world full of critics, and how we all probably need to watch out for our own inner critic, from time to time. There's 3 big ideas I want to cover. Number 1, taking action despite judgment. Number 2, building something worth criticism. And then number 3, the danger of becoming a spectator in life. Builders are the ones, I think, who move the world forward. They rarely start with all the support. They usually don't have all the answers. But they, they move forward anyway. We just recently talked a couple days ago about relentless forward progress. That's what builders are doing. It is relentless forward progress. I think about somebody like Colonel Sanders. Maybe you know, or you've heard of Colonel Sanders. At 65 years old, he decided to franchise his fried chicken recipe. And he goes about doing that, right? He franchises this fried chicken recipe. He was rejected over 1,000 times, actually 1,009 times is what I've, what I've read. I think most people would have given up. I think it's safe to say most people would not have gone 1,009 times of rejection to franchise their fried chicken recipe. But he believed in what he was building. Today, KFC has, I think, 25,000+ locations worldwide. Colonel Sanders didn't get a statue because he cooked chicken. He actually got one because he refused to quit. And there may be a Colonel Sanders statue somewhere, I don't know, but I would say the 25,000 locations probably is, is his, his style of statue. I think the key takeaway here is it's not the smartest or the fastest who win. It's those who stay in motion even when no one's clapping, even when no one's— at least yet, when there's no acknowledgement, still in motion. Uh, next, I think we've got to talk around building something worth criticism. If nobody's criticizing you, maybe you're playing it too safe. When you're building something bold, when you're building something real, it actually attracts attention and it should attract some resistance. That's the cost of making waves. Think about the creators or the founders or the leaders that you admire. I would bet every single one of them was ridiculed at some point. They were probably ridiculed well before they received praise. So it's okay to be misunderstood. As a matter of fact, I think being misunderstood is the price of originality. I think the goal is not necessarily to avoid criticism. It's to be doing something that's actually worth the criticism. Remember, if nobody's criticizing you, maybe you're playing it too safe. Now, as we're talking through this, I also want to acknowledge or recognize that there's a danger of becoming a spectator. Here's the flip side of all of this. It's dangerously easy to slip into critic mode. What do I mean when I say it's easy to slip into critic mode? Uh, with social media, we all have a tendency to become the critic. Maybe you see someone post a bold idea and you roll your eyes. Or maybe a friend launches something and you quietly doubt him or her. You start to compare, you start to judge instead of creating. Sometimes we don't even realize that we've shifted from builder to spectator, but some of us are guilty of doing this. So what do you do if you catch yourself in that mindset, if you've become a spectator? I think number 1, you got to pause and ask, what am I working on? If the answer is nothing, that's okay, but it's probably a signal. You've probably been watching more than you've been doing. So what am I, what am I working on? And again, it's okay if the answer is nothing, but just be careful. You might be sitting on the sidelines more than you're on the field. Step 2, I think you got to recommit to something small and tangible. I would call it a micro move. Maybe write that draft, reach out to that client, reconnect with that partner, map out the first step of a project. Just create some momentum because momentum is going to be greater than judgment. And then step 3, if in fact you found yourself in that spectator mode, flip judgment into inspiration. Instead of asking why them, why not ask what can I learn from them or What's my version of that, right? Don't hate the player, become the player again, as silly as that may sound. So as we're kind of working through this, right, again, the focus today is that there are no statues erected to critics. In order to have that statue, then we've got to take action. We've got to build something worth criticism. But we also always have to be careful to not become a spectator. We've got to choose the arena. Builders build with dirty hands. Critics sit with clean ones. It's easy to watch. It's easy to comment. It's hard to do. But that's where the fulfillment is, in the doing. You don't get remembered for what you critique. You get remembered for what you create. So, my question for the No Days Off Nation today, what are you building? That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.
