Brian Gubernick discusses when to ignore criticism: don't take it from people whose advice you wouldn't follow otherwise. He contrasts how children learn fearlessly with how adults shrink from negative feedback, citing the Wright brothers' flight dismissed by scientists, and argues that public skepticism shouldn't stop innovation.
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Hey there, it's Kaitlyn from No Days Off. We want to take a moment to thank you for joining us on the No Days Off movement. It has been such an honor and so much fun to see so many people committed to getting better at their businesses, relationships, health, lives, and so much more. As we are approaching our 100th episode, Brian and I are excited to announce our very first giveaway. To enter the giveaway, all you need to do is leave us a review wherever you listen to the No Days Off podcast. And if you've left us a review in the past, you can still be entered to win. Simply send us a screenshot of your review to our Instagram @nodaysoffpodcast. The lucky winner will receive a pair of Beats Bluetooth headphones, and we will announce our winner on August 23rd. We will share these details in the show notes as well. Don't forget to share this episode with others and let's continue to grow the No Days Off movement. Enjoy the episode.
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. Before we get into today's topic, I just want to remind y'all we are nearing our 100th episode. So please pay attention. We are going to be running some contests around our 100th episode. You're gonna want to participate. We've got some cool prizes. So we'll be announcing on social what exactly we'll be doing, and I'd love, love, love for you to participate and take advantage of 100. I can't believe we are, we are nearing it, but we're almost there, just a few episodes out. So the 100th episode coming up. Pay attention on social. We'll be running some contests and some giveaways. All that being said, let's get into today's topic. Today we're going to be discussing not taking criticism, not taking criticism from someone you wouldn't take advice from. Don't take criticism from someone you wouldn't take advice from. I'm going to start by talking about kids. We're going to talk about children. Because children are the fastest learners on this planet. And that's partly because they just don't care what other people think of them. They have no shame whatsoever around failing. Take a, take a small child. That small child will fall hundreds and hundreds of times and get up hundreds of hundreds of times in the course of learning how to walk. They never get embarrassed. They don't care what anybody's saying. They just know that they want to walk. Now, as we get older, we have a hard time or a harder time staying this open. We might take, say, a singing lesson, or we may, might take some, uh, class to learn how to DJ or play the guitar or, or whatever it may be. But once we sing a flat note or strike the wrong chord or feel like we're old and everybody else is young, uh, we tap out, we shrink, or we stop. Much, much different than younger kids. Part of being limitless is learning to let go of the fear of criticism from other people. History is littered with examples of people that had to overcome negative opinions of people around them. We have to become like those people. A good example of this, this comes out of a book I recently referenced, Limitless by Jim Quick. He gives a great example and he talks about the Wright brothers. The Wright brothers accomplished an incredible feat, the feat of flying a machine through the air. And in December of 1903, when they accomplished this, they were not met with all this celebration when they returned home. Instead, they were met with doubt. Why were they met with doubt? Well, because all the scientists, all the geniuses of the era had explained that flying was impossible, that it couldn't be done. They had proven, you know, I'll use air quotes, proven that man could not fly. And so no newspaper even picked up the story. Nobody wanted to be the one to print the story of, of the Wright brothers flying in the event that, you know, it wasn't true. It didn't sound true, and they didn't want to be humiliated. So no editor wanted to print the story. The Wright brothers were, were, were met with incredible doubt. They had no public recognition. They but it didn't stop them. It did not stop the Wright brothers. See, most of us fear the opinions of other people when we simply think about trying something new. But what the Wright brothers' story shows us is that public imagination is woefully underwhelming. And again, if you succumb to the criticism, You tap out. So here's the truth. Here's the truth. Creating the life that you want can be rather scary, but what's scarier, and we talk about it quite often on this podcast, what's, what's scarier than that? What's harder than that is regret. So don't succumb to the criticism of others. Don't take criticism, criticism from someone you wouldn't take advice from. If you want to live a big life, a life without regret, go and try, go and fail. Don't worry about how you look. Get up, move on, and live that big life. So the focusing question for you today: where are you experiencing, or fearful, I should say, of experiencing criticism? In your world? And has that slowed you down or stopped you? If in fact it has, how can you get back on that horse today? Accept the fact that some are going to doubt you, but you don't care. Stop caring what others think. Go to work and go create something amazing. Maybe you fail, maybe you fail countless times, but you're living the life that you want to lead and not the life expected of you by others. That's all we have for 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.
