Evan Carmichael argues that both naysayers and yes-men are dangerous, but for different reasons. You need people who believe in your vision yet challenge your ideas with honest feedback. Toxic naysayers driven by jealousy and uncritical yes-men who never push back both kill innovation.
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Who's more dangerous, naysayers or yes-men? It's a great question that came in from Linda, a YouTube viewer who's going crazy on all the posts. Thank you, Linda. And that's what she wrote. Who do you think is more dangerous, the naysayers or the yes-men? For me, it really depends on their attention. So I don't really agree with the labeling here because it depends on what their attention is is I would rather surround myself with people who disagree with me, who give me constructive feedback to help make things better. So the people who I bring on, on my team, or people I surround myself with, they believe in what we're doing, they have the same vision, they're online with our mission and what we're all about, so in that sense they're yes-men. You know, if I want somebody who— if somebody comes on board and they don't believe in helping entrepreneurs, they don't believe in Believe, that's what we stand for, then I don't care if they say no. They're not part of my team. I need a yes man who believes in what we're doing and who's working with me to achieve that goal. I want to help a billion entrepreneurs. I need somebody who believes in that as well. If you're a naysayer, if you don't like that goal, I don't want to know you. On the flip side, once we're working together, If you believe in what we're all about, but you disagree with a decision I make, or you disagree with one of the directions we're going in, because it doesn't serve our vision, then I want to hear about it. I don't need to be told how great everything is. I know it's great. We have high standards. It has to be great. I want to make it better. I want to make it perfect. I want your advice, your opinions, your suggestions, your guidance on how to make things better. I don't have a big defense mechanism. You know, you tell me that something should be better, I want to hear your thoughts, right? Don't just say that this sucks. Tell me how to make it better. So it's a combination. You know, we all have a lot of naysayers around us who— what's their objective? Their objective often is just to make themselves feel good. You know, they put you down because they really want to be entrepreneurs themselves, or they're jealous of you. Or whatever the reason is. Like, those people you gotta throw away. They're dangerous to you. You can't get sucked in by poisonous thinking. And then the yes-men who just follow along with everything you say, they could be great employees, like, do this job, do this job, but they're never gonna give you new ideas and help you take this company to where you really need it to be, because you cannot do this alone. You need help, you need a team, you need people who believe in you. And not just staff members, but friends and a support network and other people, advisors, to give you direction and help make sure you're doing what you should be doing. So I need the people who believe in my vision, who are on board with it, who think this is a great idea, who love it to their core, who are passionate about it, who want to help me accomplish my goal because it's their goal. That's why they're coming on board. They want to accomplish that goal too. We're on this together. But you also need the people who will challenge you positively, who want to make things better, who want to increase your standards, who want to help you get to your goal in a better direction. Those are the people you're going after. So you're embracing the genius of the ant. We're not going for this or this, you need both. When you get that, when you find those people, you keep them for as long as you can. You keep them for life, 'cause those are the people who are gonna have a tremendous impact on your business and help you achieve your goals. Believe. You guys like this video? Thumbs up below, thank you so much. And please leave a comment this time, please leave a comment underneath, let me know if you like the video or not. If you have a question for your business, leave it below, I'll do a video response just like this. Thank you guys, thank you Linda for the great question. And I'll see you soon.
